Opinion ID: 1152301
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: error in introducing entire parks and jones statements over defense objections

Text: Welch raises a far more serious question in his claim of error in introducing into evidence the pretrial statements of Jones and Parks. This, of course, is entirely inconsistent with his previous claim that there is a Brady violation because he was not furnished with copies of these statements. The circuit judge permitted the State to introduce them under MRE Rule 106, and under the facts of this case in my view there was no error in his doing so. MRE 106 is a codification of the common law rule of completeness. If a party wishes to cross-examine a witness as to a prior out-of-court statement (usually made by the witness himself), he will not be permitted to pick out the part favorable to himself and leave it there. The opposing party is then permitted to offer the entire statement into evidence in order to give the jury a complete picture. Davis v. State, 230 Miss. 183, 92 So.2d 359 (1957); Sanders v. State, 237 Miss. 772, 115 So.2d 145 (1959). See, Comment to Rule 106: Such a rule attempts to prevent misleading the jury by taking evidence out of context. Of course, in the absence of the cross-examination by defense counsel none of the contents of the statements given by Parks and Jones would have been competent evidence, and it would have been highly prejudicial to admit them. Barnes v. State, 199 Miss. 86, 23 So.2d 405 (1945); Darby v. State, 121 Miss. 869, 84 So. 6 (1920); Moore v. State, 102 Miss. 148, 59 So. 3 (1912). It is clear from this record that defense counsel did seek to take advantage of whatever part of Parks's and Jones's statements favored Welch, and did thereby open the door. It was a dangerous trial tactic. The question then, is to what extent did Rule 106 permit the use of portions or all of the remainder of Parks's and Jones's statements? Through this tactic defense counsel got from Clark that in the statements of Parks and Jones they had related that Welch had not strangled Heath, that Welch had not hit Heath with the heavy instrument, that Welch told Jones he did not want any part of any murder or to that effect, and that Welch had not touched Heath from the time the group left Tennessee. Defense counsel squeezed out of Clark virtually every favorable part to Welch from both Jones's and Parks's statements. If he did not thereby open the door for other, and unfavorable parts of the statements as to Welch's participation, it would be difficult to envision how the door could ever be opened. Welch should not be permitted to complain on appeal of a trial tactic which backfired. His counsel skated on very thin ice, and it broke. Rule 106 states: When a writing or recorded statement or part thereof is introduced by a party, an adverse party may require him at that time to introduce any other part or any other writing or recorded statement which ought in fairness to be considered contemporaneously with it. Rule 106 does not necessarily require that when a witness is questioned about a prior written or recorded statement that all the remainder must be offered into evidence, but only that part which ought in fairness to be considered. The statement of Jones and Parks are lengthy and give each of their versions of what transpired the evening of the slaying. Welch did not seek at trial to inform the court, nor on appeal to inform the Court what part should have been excluded when these entire statements were placed into evidence. Welch simply objected at trial and on appeal to the introduction of any part of the statements. In this he clearly errs. He does not attempt to distinguish for us the portions which exceed the necessity of completeness. Clearly other portions of the statements (indeed perhaps all) were admissible to explain the participation of Welch in the crime. Since Welch makes no attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff, this Court should not undertake the task for him. If there were some particular portions of the statements which he considered unnecessary, irrelevant, or prejudicial, it was incumbent upon him to set them out first to the circuit judge, and then to us on appeal. To give a simple illustration of the fairness of the circuit judge in requiring that all of the statements be introduced into evidence after portions had been ventilated before the jury, let us assume the facts were the other way around. Let us suppose a witness testifying in a trial had received a letter from the defendant in which he admitted killing another person, but the letter also stated that at the time of the slaying the deceased was taking dead aim at the defendant with a double barrel shotgun. If the State asked the witness was it not true that he had received a letter from the defendant in which he admitted killing the deceased, can anybody believe it would not then be perfectly proper to introduce the entire letter into evidence?