Opinion ID: 411723
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Substantiality of the Right Affected

Text: 79 Rule 52(a) mandates that errors at trial that do not affect substantial rights of the defendant are insufficient to reverse a criminal conviction on appeal. Although the Supreme Court has held that some constitutional rights are so basic to a fair trial that their infraction can never be treated as harmless error ..., Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23, 87 S.Ct. 824, 827, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), and four circuits have held that intimidation of defense witnesses requires reversal without a showing of prejudice, see United States v. Hammond, 598 F.2d at 1013; United States v. Morrison, 535 F.2d at 228; United States v. Thomas, 488 F.2d at 336; Bray v. Peyton, 429 F.2d 500, 501 (4th Cir.1970) (per curiam); see also United States v. MacCloskey, 682 F.2d at 479; Berg v. Morris, 483 F.Supp. at 186-87, more recently the Court has stated that interests protected by the Sixth Amendment look to the degree of prejudice incurred by a defendant as a result of governmental action or inaction. United States v. Valenzuela-Bernal, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3440, 3448, 73 L.Ed.2d 1193 (1982). 80 On the basis of the trial record in this case, we cannot decide that it could have made no significant difference to the jury if Robinson had testified along the lines suggested in the proffer. See id. at 3447 (defendant must show testimony of deported witness would have been both material and favorable to his defense). Although the testimony of Williams, Blackwell's only defense witness other than himself, paralleled the proffer for Robinson, the significance of Robinson's nonappearance could not have been lost on the jury. Robinson was Blackwell's common-law wife and the person in whose name the hotel room where the guns were found was rented. The fact that she did not take the stand to corroborate or supplement Williams' testimony as to how the guns came to be found in the Pitts Hotel room or to testify whether Blackwell knew they were there could have been a fatal gap in his defense. Robinson was the only logical person other than Blackwell who might have known the circumstances of the guns' presence in the room and the extent of Blackwell's knowledge of their presence. Indeed, Robinson allegedly told Blackwell's attorney, who then informed the court, that there was absolutely no way in the world Mr. Blackwell knew that those guns were in the apartment. Tr. at 262. Robinson kept knowledge of her possession of the guns from Blackwell, his attorney stated, because she knew he had a prior record and because she did not want Blackwell to know she had been in Virginia with Williams. 81 Since the test for prejudice in cases of this type is whether the missing evidence might likely have substantially affected the outcome of the trial, see United States v. Bass, 535 F.2d 110 (D.C.Cir.1976); Rule 52(b), we assess the substantiality of the right affected as militating in favor of finding plain error in this case. 82