Opinion ID: 2184368
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Was Pierce Denied His Rights Under the State Confrontation Clause?

Text: Pierce next challenges the constitutionality of the protected person statute, contending that the lack of cross-examination of K.D. in front of the factfinder is a constitutional infirmity mandating reversal.
Miller I upheld the then current version IND.CODE § 35-37-4-6 against a facial constitutional challenge, but held that a new trial was required because the defendant there had been denied his statutory right to cross-examine the child. Miller I, 517 N.E.2d at 73. In addition to finding a statutory right, Miller I stated that admitting otherwise inadmissible evidence under the statute must be accompanied by some opportunity for cross-examination if it is to comply with the Indiana Constitution. [13] Id. Miller I made clear that exercise of the confrontation right outside the presence of the jury could satisfy the opportunity for confrontation required by the state constitutional right to meet the witnesses face to face. IND. CONST. art. I, § 13. The statuteincluding the version upheld in Miller I has always expressly provided that the admissibility hearing take place outside the presence of the jury. IND. CODE § 35-37-4-6(d)(1)(A) (1993 & Supp. 1994). We reach the same conclusion as to the current version of the statute in light of the intervening precedents. First, although judicial development of Indiana's Confrontation Clause is of relatively recent vintage compared with its federal counterpart, see Miller I, 517 N.E.2d at 68-69, the Indiana right contains a unique face to face element requiring that the witness and the accused be able to see and recognize each other. Brady v. State, 575 N.E.2d 981 (Ind. 1991). The state right also protects cross-examination (usually by the defendant's attorney) and distinguishes it from the need for physical confrontation (by the defendant). The latter is separate and apart from the former. Id. at 988. Although testimony about out-of-court statements creates special reliability concerns, hearsay is not ipso facto a violation of the Indiana Constitution. Miller I, 517 N.E.2d at 71; Sumpter v. State, 261 Ind. 471, 481-82, 306 N.E.2d 95, 102-03 (1974). Indeed, in the case of typical hearsay where a live witness reports what the declarant said the constitutional reference to meeting the witness is literally fulfilled because the witness reporting the hearsay is on the stand. [14] Otherwise stated, in that situation the declarant is not the witness. Nonetheless, hearsay exceptions must be separately tested for a violation of the Indiana confrontation right. Brady, 575 N.E.2d at 987. Arndt v. State, 642 N.E.2d 224 (Ind.1994) is the most recent case in this Court involving a constitutional challenge to the statute. In Arndt, we held that the Indiana Confrontation Clause was not violated where the child witness repeated his former allegations at the competency hearing, in the presence of the defendant, and was subject to an untrammeled cross-examination. Id. at 227. We concluded that [t]he surrogate here for cross-examination of a sworn witness, observable by the trier of fact, is satisfied. Id. at 228. Here, as in Arndt, a face to face meeting between the child and the defendant occurred outside the presence of the jury and there was an opportunity for cross-examination. By referring to the protected person statute as an acceptable surrogate, Arndt implicitly reaffirmed the Miller I view that the Indiana Confrontation Clause did not require this cross-examination to occur in front of the factfinder. Although the Indiana Confrontation Clause places a premium upon live testimony of the State's witnesses in the courtroom during trial, the right is not absolute. Brady, 575 N.E.2d at 987-88. Under IND.CODE § 35-37-4-6, the defendant has two safeguards against admission of untrustworthy evidence: (1) the right to cross-examine the child at the hearing; and (2) the requirement that the court find the statement or videotape to exhibit sufficient indications of reliability. Cross-examination at the hearing affords the defendant an opportunity to reveal weaknesses or inconsistencies in the child's memory or account of events. And as we have provided today, this testimony can be videotaped and later shown to the jury along with the videotape or other statements admitted under the protected person statute. The assumption underlying any admission of hearsay is that cross-examination of the declarant will not occur before the factfinder but that other safeguards are sufficient to assure reliability and therefore admissibility. The quest for truth sometimes requires admitting statements from witnesses unavailable for various reasonsdeath and incompetence among them. The statute, designed to deal with specific crimes that, by their nature, may be provable only by statements of small children or the mentally disabled, goes beyond federal constitutional standards in mandating any confrontation. By ensuring a right of cross-examination and requiring findings of reliability, the statute guards against the harm the hearsay rule was designed to prevent convictions based on flimsy evidence. In sum, the statute constitutionally substitutes for the trustworthiness normally established by cross-examination in front of the factfinder.
In construing a prior version of the statute, we held that the defendant must have an opportunity to cross-examine the victim for the statute to pass state constitutional muster. Miller I, 517 N.E.2d at 73. However, this opportunity does not have to be seized or successful and the right can be waived. State v. Owings, 622 N.E.2d 948 (Ind.1993). A defendant cannot claim loss of the right to meet witnesses face to face if a face to face meeting took place and no questions were asked. We have already concluded here that the requirements of IND.CODE § 35-37-4-6 were met in Pierce's case because K.D. was available for cross-examination within the meaning of the statute. This availability is the opportunity to confront Miller I deemed constitutionally required. What happened in this case is not unlike the facts in Owings. There, we held that the defendant had a state constitutional right to confront a witness at a deposition if the deposition was used at trial and the witness was unavailable to give live testimony. The defendant's lawyer wrongly believed that the defendant was banned from entering the site of the deposition, but the lawyer did not ask to enter or move the deposition elsewhere. Under those circumstances, we found that the right of confrontation had been waived. Owings, 622 N.E.2d at 953. Here, Pierce apparently believed he was entitled to some later opportunity under Shoup and for this reason made no effort to question K.D. Although different from Arndt in that cross-examination there actually took place, Pierce in this case had opportunity to confront K.D, indeed even more opportunity than in Owings. K.D. testified at the hearing and the court never indicated, either explicitly or implicitly, that cross-examination would not be allowed. Pierce was presented with his constitutional right to confront K.D. in conformity with the Indiana Constitution. By not questioning her, Pierce waived the right. Since we find no constitutional error, Pierce's claim that the trial court should have granted his request for a mistrial lacks merit. [15]