Opinion ID: 879841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: addition of new witnesses

Text: In mid-course of the State's case-in-chief in the third trial, the state moved to amend the information to add new witnesses not therefore disclosed to the defendant Forsyth. The court permitted the amendment of the information and the subsequent testimony. Thus, Charlie Perkins and Timothy Hiser, prisoners in the Montana State Prison, were permitted to testify that Forsyth had made a jailhouse confession that he killed Karen while Forsyth was incarcerated after the first trial. During the second trial of Forsyth, in Lake County, the jury had been permitted to know that Forsyth had been convicted of a homicide in the first trial in Flathead County. In preparation for a third trial, Forsyth and the District Court seemed in agreement that any knowledge of Forsyth's first conviction should be kept from the Toole County jury. Thus, voir dire of prospective jurors from Toole County was conducted without reference to the first conviction, nor any impression the jurors might have regarding a first conviction. When the State proposed to amend the information to add the name of Charlie Perkins, Forsyth objected strenuously, pointing out Perkins' untrustworthiness, substantiated by some of the prison staff, and particularly objecting that his testimony would reveal to the jury the first conviction about which Forsyth had not an opportunity to voir dire the prospective jurors. The majority hold that the denial of this opportunity is not so material that it gives rise to a claim for a new trial. But see, State v. Doll (Mont. 1985), 692 P.2d 473, 42 St.Rep. 40. In like manner, Timothy Hiser was also permitted to testify to a jailhouse confession. With the amendment of the names of Perkins and Hiser, the issues in the District Court trial took off in all directions. Hearings were necessary to bring in prison officials and others respecting the characters of Perkins and Hiser. A search was made of the possibility of finding witnesses among the 135 prison inmates who might disprove the jailhouse confession (an impossible task). When permitted to testify, the prison inmates not only testified to the jailhouse confession, but claimed Forsyth committed other crimes, including wielding a shank while he was in prison (Perkins had in fact been disciplined in prison for carrying a shank, which is a knife-like object). Hiser testified that the defendant had made threats to kill the prosecutor, and that his counsel had threatened to reveal to other prisoners that he was an informer. This evidence of other crimes were not noticed pretrial to defendant ( State v. Just (1979), 184 Mont. 262, 602 P.2d 957). Defendant's counsel, however, did not object to the evidence of other crimes. Post-trial, Forsyth moved for new trial, including as grounds that Perkins and Hiser had been promised benefits for their testimony. The pretrial hearings had brought out evidence from the prison officials that Perkins under long-term sentences, had wanted to be transferred out of the Montana State Prison; that two states, Washington and Idaho, had refused his transfer; and that as far as the prison staff was concerned, they would make no other effort to get him transferred. Following the trial of Forsyth, Perkins was transferred to the Wyoming Prison; he never returned to the Montana State Prison following the trial. Forsyth further learned post-trial that correspondence existed between Timothy Hiser and the district judge before the third trial in which Hiser complained of the conditions of the Montana State Prison. Although Hiser testified that he was promised nothing for his testimony, following the third Forsyth trial, he was kept in the Flathead County jail until the spring of 1986, when he was completely released from all incarceration though he had been given a five year sentence in 1985. Hiser also never returned to Montana State Prison. The District Court denied the motion for new trial on this ground without giving Forsyth an opportunity to develop further hearings as to what agreements, if any, existed between the State and the prisoners when their testimony was arranged. The majority approves the District Court's denial of a new trial on this point by stating that the additional evidence would be merely cumulative impeaching evidence as to the prison witnesses. That ground understates the impact on the trial of the introduction of this kind of testimony, the distraction of the jurors of having to choose between the testimony of the accused defendant and the uncorroborated testimony of prison inmates who probably stood to benefit from their testimony, and the grinding-down effect of a prolonged trial that ensued from the amendment allowing these witnesses. Defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial is directly involved in this issue.