Opinion ID: 1613489
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did reference by the State, during cross-examination of Fields and closing argument, to Fields' post-arrest silence violate Fields' due process rights?

Text: Fields argues that prosecution's cross-examination of Fields affected a substantial right, Fields' right to due process. Fields asserts that he was prejudiced because the introduction of the evidence improperly tended to equate his silence with guilt. Fields claims that the reference in closing to Fields' post-arrest silence, regarding the stabbing, violated Fields' right to due process guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Fields asserts that it was plain error to allow this issue to be used by State. We have recognized the plain error rule, but only in exceptional cases, and then it must be applied cautiously. The rule does not encompass every error that occurs at trial, but only those which are both obvious and substantial. State v. Brammer, 304 N.W.2d 111, 114 (S.D.1981); State v. Smith, 344 N.W.2d 505 (S.D.1984). In Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976), the Supreme Court extended the privilege against self-incrimination, to situations where the prosecution uses a defendant's silence at the time of arrest, to impeach a defense subsequently offered at trial. In Doyle, the defendants at trial testified to alibi defenses that they had not told previously to the prosecutor or police. The prosecutor then cross-examined the defendants about their failure to give their exculpatory version of the facts to the police at the time of arrest. The Court held that the use of impeachment purposes of petitioner's silence, at the time of arrest and after receiving Miranda warnings, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Doyle, 426 U.S. at 619, 96 S.Ct. at 2245, 49 L.Ed.2d at 98. Therefore, we must distinguish Doyle from the case before us. In Doyle, the Court held that it was improper to refer to defendant's post-arrest silence, at the time of arrest and after receiving Miranda warnings, for impeachment purposes. In the case at bar, the State did not question Fields about and refer to his post-arrest silence regarding the stabbing for impeachment purposes. The State's Attorney's cross-examination of Fields and closing argument was very explicit and specific in that he referred to this issue only to the asserted lack of memory by Fields and generally the inconsistency of trial testimony to post-arrest silence. This was designed to contrast Fields' quite prolific memory of the events in his post-arrest interview, his refusal to discuss the stabbing and his claims of memory loss of those events at trial. Our conclusions in Waff v. Solem, 427 N.W.2d 118 (S.D.1988) are analogous to this case. In Waff, the prosecuting attorney alluded in cross-examination and closing argument to Waff's failure to produce an alibi witness. In Waff, we stated: We conclude that the prosecutor's cross-examination questions and comments in his closing argument were directed not at petitioner's refusal to testify or his pre-trial silence, but his failure to produce evidence. Consequently, such questions and comments were not improper.... Waff, 427 N.W.2d at 121. Similarly, in our case, State's Attorney's questions and comments were not directed at Fields' silence concerning the stabbing itself, but focused on Fields' lack of memory. The questions and comments, when examined in context, did not try to impute guilt from Fields' silence, but were used to highlight Fields' prior inconsistent statements. Doyle was further distinguished by the Supreme Court in Anderson v. Charles, 447 U.S. 404, 100 S.Ct. 2180, 65 L.Ed.2d 222 (1980). In Anderson, the defendant gave two different stories concerning his theft of a car. In the initial story, a police officer interviewed the defendant shortly after arrest. After receiving Miranda warnings, defendant stated he stole the car from a street locale. The second story, elicited at trial, defendant stated he stole the car from an entirely different locale. The Anderson court concluded that the questions were not designed to draw meaning from silence, but to elicit an explanation for a prior inconsistent statement. It further stated that Each of two inconsistent descriptions of events may be said to involve `silence' insofar as it omits facts included in the other version. Anderson, 447 U.S. at 409, 100 S.Ct. at 2182, 65 L.Ed.2d at 227. Accordingly, we find that Fields' contentions of violation of due process do not trigger the plain error rule. In the present context of State's Attorney's questions and comments in issue, it is evident that prosecutorial questions and comments did not treat Fields' silence as evidence of guilt. Therefore, no violation of due process attended thereon.