Opinion ID: 1793148
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: constitutional right to testify

Text: Appellant maintains the exclusion rule of hypnotically refreshed testimony should not be applied to defendants because it violates their constitutional right to testify in their own behalf. Of course, a defendant's right to testify is fundamental, but even that right is not without limits. A defendant with language difficulties, for example, may not eschew diligence and wait until the morning of trial to seek the assistance of an interpreter. Figeroa v. State, 244 Ark. 457, 425 S.W.2d 516 (1968). Even defendants are subject to the rules of procedure and evidence, such as hearsay, or other instances of evidentiary exclusion, e.g. evidence that is prejudicial, confusing, misleading, cumulative or time consuming. In Greenfield v. Robinson, 413 F.Supp. 1113 (1976), the same argument was made by a defendant who had no recollection of the crime, a murder. He argued that hypnotic testimony was the only evidence he could offer in his defense, that it would be a violation of his constitutional rights to deny him the right to testify, citing Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973). The cases are easily distinguishable, as the Greenfield court found. Chambers primarily found a hearsay exception for evidence offered by the defense because of reliability. The Greenfield court pointed out it was excluding the hypnotically induced testimony for the very reason that it was unreliable, after reviewing expert opinion on the issue: This court knows of no rule that requires a judge to accept evidence of uncertain value to go to a defense that is otherwise completely uncorroborated. The mere fact that a crime has no eyewitnesses or direct evidence does not warrant a court to accept evidence that may be able to tell the trier of fact something about the crime, but may be of dubious quality. As a constitutional principle then this court simply finds that petitioner's due process guarantees were not abrogated by the trial court's refusal to permit the defendant to relate his story under hypnosis. Greenfield , 93 S.Ct. at 1120-21. In State v. Atwood, supra, a defendant charged with the murder of his wife had no recollection of the event and made the identical argument. The Atwood court had not previously considered the hypnosis problem and made a finding on that issue first, aligning itself with those jurisdictions which exclude hypnotically refreshed testimony. The court then dealt with appellant's constitutional right to testify in his behalf. Citing Greenfield, supra , the Atwood court decided it was not required to accept such testimony, even if it was all the defendant had, noting it was not required to accept evidence of uncertain value that is otherwise completely uncorroborated. The court held the defendant's constitutional rights were not violated. We think the same reasoning applies here. Appellant's testimony was restricted only by what, in effect, are standard rules of evidence. The probative value of the proffered testimony is questionable, as we have seen, but in any case, it is substantially outweighed by the other considerations discussed. We note that appellant was in a far better position than either defendant in Atwood or Greenfield who had no testimony to offer other than hypnosis, in that she was allowed to relate the substance of her version of the shooting to the jury, which she had remembered prior to hypnosis. Appellant's defense was that the shooting was an accident and this she was able to adequately relay to the jury. She testified that she and her husband were quarreling, that he pushed her against the wall, that she wanted to leave because she was frightened, and her husband wouldn't let her go. She said her husband's behavior that night was unusual, and the shooting was an accident, that she didn't mean to do it and that she would not intentionally hurt her husband. In reality nothing was excluded that would have been of much assistance to appellant, or would have enlarged on her testimony to any significant degree. Yet given the available information on the effect of hypnosis and the attendant difficulties of such testimony, the state's desire to confine appellant's testimony to the pre-hypnotic memories is warranted. The trial court was faced with a difficult situation at best when presented with a witness who had been hypnotized and the damage done before any ruling could be made. We think the trial court took the proper course in its ruling and any prejudice or deprivation caused to appellant in this case was minimal and resulted from her own actions and not by any erroneous ruling of the court. We can find no violation of her constitutional rights.