Opinion ID: 1943879
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Admission of Wiseman's Out-of-Court Statements Under Devonshire v. United States

Text: Appellant challenges the pre-trial ruling under Devonshire v. United States to admit Wiseman's out-of-court statements. 691 A.2d 165 (D.C.), cert denied sub nom. Vines v. United States, 520 U.S. 1247, 117 S.Ct. 1859, 137 L.Ed.2d 1060 (1997). In Devonshire we held that a defendant who has killed a potential witness, who is expected to give damaging testimony against the killer in some future proceeding, waives the right under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment [and on hearsay grounds] to object to the admission of that witness's out-of-court statements. Id. at 166. Appellant argues first that the trial court abused its discretion because its ruling was made solely on the basis of a government proffer, despite defense counsel's requests for an evidentiary hearing. Appellant's second contention, similar to his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction of obstruction, see supra Part D., argues that, even if it was permissible for the trial court to rule based upon a proffer, the government's proffer here failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that Wiseman was a witness. Therefore, according to appellant, Wiseman's statements should not have been admitted.
At a pretrial proceeding, the trial court considered the government's motion in limine which sought admission of several statements about appellant made by Wiseman to her friends during the weeks between the triple murder and her own demise. The government proffered a broad array of mutually supportive witness testimony and direct evidence to show that Wiseman had damaging testimony to give and that appellant killed Wiseman. We need not repeat this evidence here as it was substantially the same as the evidence presented at trial and detailed in our discussion of the sufficiency of the evidence of obstruction. See supra Part D. Defense counsel argued at length that the proffer was not sufficient to establish either that appellant had killed Wiseman, a contention not raised on appeal, or that Wiseman was a potential witness within the meaning of Devonshire. Defense counsel's own proffer, however, showed only (1) that Simpson, whose expected testimony formed a large portion of the government's proffer, had made several inconsistent statements regarding the triple murder and was unreliable because she was seeking to shift blame onto appellant, and (2) that Wiseman had denied knowledge of the triple murder and had not spoken with investigators about the case. Over defense counsel's assertions that an evidentiary hearing was required, the trial court determined that, under the circumstances of the case, the evidence proffered by the government was sufficient for it to determine by a preponderance of the evidence, and likely even by clear and convincing evidence, [9] that appellant had killed Wiseman and that she was a witness within the meaning of Devonshire. See Devonshire, supra, 691 A.2d at 169 (predicate facts need only be proven by preponderance of evidence). As a part of its ruling, the trial court noted that the same evidence would, of necessity, be presented at trial and subjected to cross-examination because it would also go toward proving the obstruction count to the jury. The trial court stated that it would monitor the evidence as it unfolded to ensure that the evidence proffered was actually presented, and to confirm that the evidence at trial actually met the preponderance standard. Indeed, as the trial court pointed out, the government took a strategic gamble by proceeding by proffer because the possibility existed that the court would not be satisfied by trial evidence or that the jury would acquit on the obstruction count, thereby calling into question the sufficiency of the proffered evidence and risking a mistrial on all counts affected by Wiseman's statements.
The parties agree that our review of this issue is for abuse of discretion by the trial court. Cf., e.g., Groves v. United States, 564 A.2d 372, 374 (D.C. 1989), amended on other grounds by 574 A.2d 265 (1990). Appellant is correct that we declined to decide conclusively in Devonshire whether the trial court in that case properly considered this issue by means of a proffer rather than an evidentiary hearing. See Devonshire, supra, 691 A.2d at 170 & n. 9 (reviewing this issue for plain error, and finding none, because appellant failed to raise at trial). We are now presented with that question and hold that under the circumstances of this case it was not an abuse of the trial court's discretion to refuse defense counsel's request for an evidentiary hearing. In a number of comparable situations, we permit trial courts to proceed by proffer to determine the predicate for admissibility of evidence. One such situation is for determining the admissibility of other crimes, or Drew, evidence. In Daniels v. United States, we held that a trial court may act within its discretion to conduct its pretrial inquiry on the admissibility of the other crimes evidence by means of a `detailed proffer from the government' instead of holding, in effect, a bench trial of the other crime, which presumably will be fully replicated before the jury if admitted. 613 A.2d 342, 347 (D.C.1992) (citing Groves, supra, 564 A.2d at 374); cf. Carter v. United States, 684 A.2d 331, 344 (D.C.1996) (en banc) (proffer proper to fulfill required conditions to begin process of obtaining immunity for defense witness); Winfield v. United States, 676 A.2d 1, 4 (D.C.1996) (en banc) (proffer may be proper for defense to show predicate facts for admission of evidence that other individual committed offense); District of Columbia v. Whitley, 640 A.2d 710, 713-14 (D.C.1994) (prosecutor's proffer, together with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn, sufficient to overcome defense motion for judgment of acquittal). Nor do the cases cited by appellant lead to a conclusion that an evidentiary hearing was required in this case. United States v. Thornton, 147 U.S.App. D.C. 114, 124, 454 F.2d 957, 967-68 (1971), and Duddles v. United States, 399 A.2d 59, 60 (D.C. 1979), each stated that an evidentiary hearing might be required to resolve matters unrelated to the Devonshire waiver rule, but those grounds differ significantly and both cases only require such a hearing after a showing of factual allegations that would warrant a trial within a trial. [10] Even if Thornton and Duddles were applicable here, defense counsel, despite arguing assertively about perceived shortcomings in the government's proffer, failed to proffer a factual basis sufficient to necessitate an evidentiary hearing. At least one federal appeals court has considered the issue before us under the federal analogue to Devonshire. The Eighth Circuit ruled that an evidentiary hearing was not required to determine the admissibility of statements made by a witness killed by the defendant: the repetition necessarily inherent with a preliminary hearing would amount to a significant waste of judicial resources. United States v. Emery, 186 F.3d 921, 926 (8th Cir.1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1130, 120 S.Ct. 968, 145 L.Ed.2d 839 (2000). Our determination that a hearing was not required in the case before us is bolstered by the aggregation of several circumstances which ensured that admission of Wiseman's statements was conditioned on the ongoing satisfaction of the preponderance standard until those statements reached the jury. Most relevant of these circumstances are the following: the government had to present the same evidence at trial to prove the obstruction count; the trial court recognized explicitly that it would have to monitor the evidence at trial to ensure that the proffer was fulfilled and that the equation of admissibility remained valid; the government's proffer was extensive; and the defense was afforded an equally extensive opportunity to rebut the proffer, but failed to proffer any significant evidence to counter the factual allegations of the government. Moreover, defense counsel made the trial court aware of Wiseman's original denial of knowledge and lack of cooperation prior to the court's ruling on admissibility so that they were a part of the calculus of the decision. As to the defense's evidence that called into question Simpson's reliability as the conduit of some of Wiseman's statements, the trial court took note of the issue and, at trial, the defense had an opportunity to cross-examine Simpson as to her inconsistent statements and relevant bias. In the absence of a more substantial and persuasive proffer by the defense, the trial court would have gained nothing from an evidentiary hearing that could have caused it to reach a contrary conclusion. See Daniels, supra, 613 A.2d at 347.
Nearly identical to his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his obstruction conviction, is appellant's argument that the proffer failed to show that Wiseman was a witness within the meaning of Devonshire because she denied relevant knowledge of the triple murder and had not cooperated with the authorities investigating that case. In order to overcome the defendant's right to object to the slain declarant's statements, the government need only establish the predicate facts [that appellant procured the declarant's unavailability and that the declarant qualifies as a witness] by a preponderance of the evidence. 691 A.2d at 169. We hold that the proffer was sufficient to meet the preponderance standard because we conclude that Wiseman qualifies as a witness for the purposes of waiver under Devonshire. Although neither Devonshire nor the sole District of Columbia case relying on it thus far, see Sweet, supra, 756 A.2d at 379, defined potential witness, the First Circuit case which was relied upon by Devonshire discussed the issue in some detail. See United States v. Houlihan, 92 F.3d 1271 (1st Cir.1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1118, 117 S.Ct. 963, 136 L.Ed.2d 849 (1997). In Houlihan, the appellants argued that the decedent was not an actual witness because no charges had been lodged against them at the time of his slaying. See id. at 1279. The Houlihan court held: When a defendant murders an individual who is a percipient witness ... to prevent him from appearing at an upcoming trial, he denies the government the benefit of the witness's live testimony. In much the same way, when a defendant murders such a witness ... to prevent him from assisting an ongoing criminal investigation, he is denying the government the benefit of the witness's live testimony at a future trial. In short, the two situations are fair congeners: as long as it is reasonably foreseeable that the investigation will culminate in the bringing of charges, the mere fact that the homicide occurs at an earlier step in the pavane should not affect the operation of the waiver-by-misconduct doctrine. Indeed, adopting the contrary position urged by the appellants would serve as a prod to the unscrupulous to accelerate the timetable and murder suspected snitches sooner rather than later. We see no justification for creating such a perverse incentive, or for distinguishing between a defendant who assassinates a witness on the eve of trial and a potential defendant who assassinates a potential witness before charges officially have been brought. In either case, it is the intent to silence that provides notice. Id. at 1279-80. The rationale of Houlihan fully complements the stated purpose behind Devonshire to prevent a mockery of the system of justice that would arise from a defendant deriving benefits from murdering [witnesses] against him. See Devonshire, supra, 691 A.2d at 168 (quoting United States v. Thevis, 665 F.2d 616, 630 (5th Cir.1982)). We may also look to our definition of the term witness under the obstruction statute and Smith, discussed supra Part D., which is, at a minimum, instructive since both the obstruction statute and Devonshire are aimed at deterring the elimination of witnesses by defendants. Devonshire stated that the term potential witness includes those individuals expected to give damaging testimony in some future proceeding. See Devonshire, supra, 691 A.2d at 166. This language tracks roughly the language in Smith that defines a witness for obstruction purposes, in part, as one supposed to know material facts. Smith, supra, 591 A.2d at 231. Further, the use of the adjective potential, modifying witness in Devonshire, was also used in Smith to describe a witness for obstruction purposes as being one who  may be called to testify. Smith, supra, 591 A.2d at 231 n. 3 (emphasis added). Moreover, the objective of the waiver rule under Devonshire is to prevent impediments to justice in the form of witness elimination, see Devonshire, supra, 691 A.2d at 168, the same purpose as § 22-722. See Council of the District of Columbia, Committee on the Judiciary, Report on Bill 9-385, Law Enforcement Witness Protection Act of 1992, at 2 (discussing the bill passed and codified at D.C.Code § 22-722 (1996)). The close similarities between these two provisions dictate that those who qualify as witnesses under the obstruction statute likewise qualify as potential witnesses under the waiver rule of Devonshire. Our review of the record confirms that the pretrial evidence proffered by the government to show that appellant killed Wiseman, and that she therefore qualified as a witness under Devonshire, was essentially the same as that presented at trial to prove the obstruction charge. Rather than restating that evidence, therefore, we refer to our discussions of the evidence within both our analysis of the sufficiency of the evidence of the obstruction count, see supra Part D., and our analysis of the admissibility of the obstruction evidence in a trial for the triple murder, see supra Part C. We conclude that the proffered evidence was more than sufficient to show by a preponderance of the evidence that appellant knew Wiseman had damaging knowledge to which she potentially would testify at some future proceeding. Therefore, the trial court did not err in finding that appellant had waived his right to object to admission of Wiseman's statements under Devonshire.