Opinion ID: 2545785
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cross-examination of Defense Expert Williams

Text: Defense witness Dr. Tom Williams, a clinical psychologist and an expert on PTSD, testified that defendant suffered from PTSD. He was not asked, and he expressed no view on, whether the disorder played any role in defendant's commission of the murders. On cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Dr. Williams a series of questions about defendant's possible motives for committing the crimes. He also asked whether Williams knew that defendant had lied to the sheriffs deputies who questioned him on the night of the murders. Defendant argues these questions were impermissible because they were beyond the scope of Dr. Williams's testimony on direct examination. He asserts: Under the guise of cross-examining Dr. Williams on his expert opinion, the prosecution was improperly allowed to place before the jury prejudicial evidence and inferences which were not germane to the formation of Williams's expert opinion. The Attorney General contends defendant waived this issue by failing to object to these questions. After reviewing the record, we conclude that defendant objected to the prosecutor's questions regarding defendant's motives for the murders, but not to the questions regarding his lies to the interrogating officers. Thus, he has preserved the right to challenge the prosecutor's questions on the former subject, but not the latter. The prosecutor's questions about motive were proper. Even though Dr. Williams did not explicitly testify that the murders were attributable to PTSD, it was possible that the jury might infer, based on his testimony, that PTSD played some role in the killings. As defense counsel said in a discussion in chambers, I think it is a question for the jury to determine whether or not [defendant] was suffering from PTSD or a flashback or a triggering or something at the time of the homicides. The prosecutor's cross-examination of Dr. Williams about defendant's possible motive for the killings was intended to rebut the inference that they were attributable to PTSD. The questions fell within the subject matter of Dr. Williams's testimony on direct examination and were therefore permissible. The prosecutor's questions regarding defendant's false statements to the police served a different purpose. Dr. Williams had based his conclusion that defendant suffered from Vietnam-related PTSD on defendant's description of his war experiences in Vietnam and on defendant's answers in tests given by Drs. Williams and Rath. The prosecutor's questions about defendant's false statements tested Dr. Williams's belief in the truthfulness of defendant's account of his Vietnam experiences and his test answers. As a result, any objection to the prosecutor's questions about defendant's lies would have been meritless. (See People v. Coddington (2000) 23 Cal.4th 529, 613, 97 Cal. Rptr.2d 528, 2 P.3d 1081 [When ... psychiatric experts' opinions ... are based in substantial part on statements made to them by the defendant, inquiry into the basis for the experts' belief that the defendant was honest and their knowledge of past deceitful conduct is permissible].) Defense counsel was not incompetent for failing to object in this instance. Finally, defendant raises a claim of prosecutorial misconduct based on the following: On cross-examination, defense witness Dr. Williams testified that he had told defendant that anything defendant said about the murders could be revealed in court. The prosecutor then asked: Did you explain to him that his lawyers might not ask ... questions [about the murders], but a prosecutor sure might? The trial court sustained defendant's objection to the question. Contrary to defendant's claim of prejudice, the question was harmless: it can hardly have come as a shock to the jury to learn that once the prosecutor knew that defendant had discussed the murders with Dr. Williams, he would question Williams in court about the matter.