Opinion ID: 1187046
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Was a video tape of the waterbed experiment properly admitted?

Text: At trial, Manville presented a video tape of an experiment conducted out of court by its expert. The tape shows a waterbed of the same make and model as Manville's, set on a pedestal of the same dimensions as Manville's. The waterbed was set up with the total amount of water recommended in the instructions; however, some of the water was put into the surrounding air frame to simulate the effect of a leak between the water and air compartments. During the experiment, Manville's expert periodically released air from the air frame and then walked around the mattress and lifted and pushed it to show the effect each release of air had on its stability. After several releases of air, the expert rolled into the air mattress and it flipped off the pedestal, ending up on top of the expert on the floor. The tape is technically well done. The photography is clear. The video tape is not overdramatized. At trial, the video tape was shown to the jury with the expert narrating it. ANWC objected to the admission of the video tape on the grounds that the test had not been developed under conditions substantially similar to those existing in Manville's bedroom on the night of the accident. ANWC raised four basic dissimilarities. First, the amount of air and water in the experimental mattress may have been different than Manville's. Second, the experimental mattress had no protective liner. Third, there did not appear to be air in the water part of the experimental mattress while there probably were bubbles in the Manville mattress. Fourth, ANWC claims the expert got into the bed differently than did Manville. The leading Alaska case on the admissibility of experimental evidence is Love v. State, 457 P.2d 622, 627 (Alaska 1969). In Love, the defendant had been arrested for fishing in a closed area. He defended on the grounds that he had set his net in an open area, and his boat had unintentionally drifted into the closed area. In an attempt to refute this defense, the prosecution presented an experiment where a different boat was allowed to drift in approximately the same spot as the defendant was caught. The court held that the evidence of the experiment had been erroneously admitted because it lacked a substantial similarity to conditions at the time of the event in question. While the experiment had been conducted in approximately the same spot and with the same tide, the court noted the boat had a different length and draft. Also the test boat, unlike the defendant's, had no net in the water and the net could be affected by both water and air currents. In addition, there was no showing of a similarity in wind conditions on the two days. Finally, the state had offered no expert testimony at trial to explain the effect these dissimilarities might have on the drifting of the boat. In arriving at its conclusion that the experiment was inadmissible, the court noted: It is stated almost universally that for such evidence to be admissible, it should have been developed under conditions substantially similar to those surrounding the event in issue. The rule of substantial similarity does not require an identity of conditions but only that degree of similarity which will insure that the results of the experiment are probative. In some cases a high degree of similarity may not be attainable, yet the evidence nevertheless may be enlightening to the jury. 457 P.2d at 627 (footnotes omitted). The court went on to note that the determination involves a balancing process: As with other forms of circumstantial evidence, the trial judge may, in his discretion, exclude the experimental evidence after a determination that the probative value of the experimental evidence is outweighed by the possibility of prejudice, confusion of the issues or undue consumption of time. This discretion is, however, dependent upon a showing of substantial similarity of conditions by the proponent of the evidence. Id. (footnote omitted). The court listed two principles to be followed in applying the above tests: Are the dissimilarities likely to distort the results of the experiment to the degree that the evidence is not relevant? Can the dissimilarities be adjusted for or explained so that their affect on the results of the experiment can be understood by the jury? 457 P.2d at 628. The next Alaska case to pass on the admissibility of experimental evidence was Nicholson v. State, 570 P.2d 1058 (Alaska 1977). Nicholson was a homicide case. An important issue in the case was where the perpetrator was standing when he fired the fatal shots. As part of its case, the state presented the results of an experiment conducted with the defendant's shotgun. The purpose of the experiment was to determine the distance and direction traveled by the spent shells. Under the first required Love determination, this court held that the ejection pattern of the shells was irrelevant because of differences in the ground surface. However, since the judge had limited the jury to considering the direction and air distance traveled, the admission was upheld as relevant under the second half of the Love test. Id. at 1065. Finally, the most recent Alaska case on the issue is Stumbaugh v. State, 599 P.2d 166 (Alaska 1979). In this arson case, the state introduced into evidence the results of an experiment using a candle as a delayed fuse device for starting a fire. The defendant had been accused of soaking his trailer rug with diesel fuel, lighting a candle, setting it in the middle of the carpet, and then leaving, to be elsewhere when the fire actually broke out. The experiment was conducted in an abandoned box car with a six-foot carpet scrap soaked in diesel fuel oil. The piece of carpet was placed in a metal pan and a lit candle was placed on the carpet. Over an hour later, the candle had burned down and ignited the carpet. This court held that the experimental evidence had been properly admitted. The court noted that the defendant's objections as to lack of similarity all went to the exact time that it took the candle to burn down and ignite the rug. However, the exact time was not the important issue at the trial. The purpose of the experiment was simply to show that a candle could have been used as a time delay device and to determine whether the resulting fire would totally consume the candle and leave a burn pattern similar to that found in the defendant's trailer. The court held that the conditions were sufficiently similar to make the experiment probative. 599 P.2d at 172. In the present case, the experiment easily meets the standards of Love and its progeny. First, there was a substantial similarity of conditions. The same make and model of air mattress was tested on the same size pedestal. The expert testified that the waterbed had been set up according to the manufacturer's directions, except for allowing water into the air frame to simulate an intercompartmental leak. Second, Manville's expert satisfactorily explained the effect of the various dissimilarities. The expert testified that the lack of the plastic liner would have no effect on the results. He also testified that air added to the water compartment would have no effect. Finally, ANWC's claim that the way the expert rolled into the bed was different than the way Manville got into bed on the night of the accident was a fact question for the jury. They could themselves compare the video tape scene with Manville's testimony as to how she got into the bed that night. [4] In conclusion, the results of the experiment were sufficiently probative to out-weigh any possibility of confusing the issues or misleading the jury. The experiment was enlightening to the jury in showing how the waterbed reacted with varying amounts of air in its frame. Such a bench-mark test was proper.