Opinion ID: 2165153
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether Borsello's Testimony was Properly Excluded

Text: Steven claims that the trial court committed plain error in excluding Borsello's testimony. He asserts that, pursuant to D.R.E. 804(b)(3), the testimony qualified as a statement against interest and, therefore, should have been admitted. The State contends that, since Borsello's testimony was inherently unreliable and there were no clear indications of the statement's trustworthiness, the trial court correctly excluded the testimony. D.R.E. 804(b)(3) allows admission of only truly reliable self-inculpatory statements made by unavailable declarants. The provision permits admission of the following: A statement which was, at the time of its making, so far contrary to the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far tended to subject him to civil or criminal liability ... that a reasonable man in his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is not admissible unless corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. D.R.E. 804(b)(3) (emphasis added). Moreover, whether there is sufficient corroborative evidence to admit a hearsay statement against interest is a matter to be committed to the sound discretion of the trial court and reversible only upon a showing of abuse of discretion ... or that the ruling was clearly erroneous. Ross v. State, Del.Supr., 482 A.2d 727, 741 (1984) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1194, 105 S.Ct. 973, 83 L.Ed.2d 976 (1985). Although this Court considered a similar issue in Ross, it has never fully developed what factors a court must consider when determining if corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. D.R.E. 804(b)(3). Therefore, it is helpful to consider federal interpretation of the federal counterpart of D.R.E. 804(b)(3). See Smith v. State, Del.Supr., 647 A.2d 1083, 1088 (1994). As set forth in Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), the general rule regarding the federal counterpart to D.R.E. 804(b)(3) is that courts must consider whether the statement (1) was made spontaneously and in close temporal proximity to the commission of the crime; (2) was corroborated by other evidence in the case; and (3) was truly self-incriminatory and against penal interest. The United States Supreme Court did not discuss whether a court may consider the witness' reliability, or other factors, when determining if corroborating circumstances clearly indicate trustworthiness. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has not definitively developed a uniform guideline for interpreting this issue. In United States v. Atkins, 3d Cir., 558 F.2d 133 (1977), the Third Circuit seemed to proscribe consideration of a witness' trustworthiness from the determination of the trustworthiness of a declarant's statement. In Atkins, the District Court excluded the testimony of a minor based on its conclusion that the witness was unreliable. The Court of Appeals reversed, reasoning that: (1) the court should have considered the trustworthiness of the declarant and not that of the witness; and (2) there were enough corroborating circumstances indicating the trustworthiness of the declarant's statement to admit the testimony. Id. at 135. Subsequent decisions in the Third Circuit appear to have broadened the list of factors that a court may consider when making this determination. In United States v. Bailey, 3d Cir., 581 F.2d 341 (1978), the court held that: the trustworthiness of a statement should be analyzed by evaluating not only the facts corroborating the veracity of the statement, but also the circumstances in which the declarant made the statement and the incentive he had to speak truthfully or falsely. Further, consideration should be given to factors bearing on the reliability of the reporting of the hearsay by the witness. Id. at 349; see United States v. Boyce, 3d Cir., 849 F.2d 833 (1988); United States v. Green, E.D.Pa., 694 F.Supp. 107 (1988), aff'd, 875 F.2d 312 (1989); see also United States v. Alvarez, 5th Cir., 584 F.2d 694, 701 (1978) (trustworthiness is determined primarily by the probable veracity of the in-court witness, and the reliability of the out-of-court declarant). The best way to harmonize these apparently conflicting decisions is by using the dicta set forth in United States v. Satterfield, 9th Cir., 572 F.2d 687, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 840, 99 S.Ct. 128, 58 L.Ed.2d 138 (1978). Satterfield dealt with a trial court's exclusion of a statement against interest due to the court's finding that the witness was not trustworthy. Id. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ultimately upheld the exclusion for other reasons, but noted that Rule [804(b)(3) ] refers to the trustworthiness of the statement, not of the declarant, and that formulation may be broad enough to put the trustworthiness of the witness as well as the declarant at issue. Id. at 692. Therefore, a trial court may rely to some degree on the trustworthiness of the witness when deciding whether to admit a D.R.E. 804(b)(3) declaration. The court must be careful, however, to balance that consideration against the remaining elements in the total mix of Chambers factors. Despite the trial court's confused interpretation of D.R.E. 804(b)(3) in the instant case, it properly excluded Borsello's testimony. Although the court discussed Borsello's trustworthiness at length, it also considered a host of other factors. The court found that, in addition to questions of Borsello's credibility, there were other indicia of the untrustworthiness of the statement. Outten did not confide in Borsello spontaneously, nor did he confide soon after the crime. Rather, Borsello admitted eliciting the statement from Outten almost eleven months after the crime, and then at the behest of a police investigator. Further, the physical evidence, as well as Gibbons' testimony, tended to show that both Outten and Shelton were involved in the murder. Under Rule 804(b)(3), the corroborating circumstances must do more than tend to indicate the trustworthiness of the statement, they must clearly indicate it. Satterfield, 572 F.2d at 687. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the testimony because there were insufficient corroborating circumstances to indicate clearly the trustworthiness of the statement. In any event, the portion of Borsello's testimony that related to Steven would have been excluded based on the reasoning set forth by this Court in Smith v. State . In Smith, the Court noted that [t]he policy behind the declaration-against-interest exception is that self-inculpatory statements are inherently reliable and trustworthy. There is no clear policy basis, however, for attributing equal guarantees of trustworthiness to declarations appurtenant to the self-incriminatory ones.... 647 A.2d at 1087 (citations omitted). Non-self-incriminatory components of a declaration purportedly falling within D.R.E. 804(b)(3) are presumptively inadmissible hearsay because they cannot claim any special guarantees of reliability and trustworthiness. Id. at 1088. Although the trial court's rationale was an imprecise interpretation of D.R.E. 804(b)(3), it nonetheless did not abuse its discretion by excluding Borsello's testimony.