Opinion ID: 1887296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Assignment One

Text: La.R.S. 15:492 (1950) provides: When the purpose is to show that in the special case on trial the witness is biased, has an interest, or has been corrupted, it is competent to question him as to any particular fact showing or tending to show such bias, interest or corruption, and unless he distinctly admits such fact, any other witness may be examined to establish the same. (Italics ours.) Assignment One relates to cross-examination of Officer Allison by defense counsel to establish bias, interest, or corruption, a traditional method of impeachment recognized by La.R.S. 15:492, quoted above. See: State v. Lewis, 236 La. 473, 108 So. 2d 93 (1959); State v. Elias, 229 La. 929, 87 So.2d 132 (1956); Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974); Pugh, Louisiana Evidence Law 59-61, 110-11, 134 (1974); McCormick on Evidence, Section 40 (2d ed. 1972); Pugh, 34 La.L.Rev. 538-39 (1975). The officer had previously testified that he had been a state policeman for three and one-half years and had been assigned to undercover narcotics work. After an objection was sustained to another question intended to show possible interest the defendant then asked the state witness the following question: Would you advise the Court how you came about being a state police narcotics agent? The State objected to the question as irrelevant. In the colloquy outside the presence of the jury, the defendant's counsel clearly stated that his purpose was to ascertain whether the witness was motivated by grudge or prejudice. The trial court then stated: The Court has ruled that it [the question] was irrelevant, and from that point on, you should then ask next question and leave that area. Do we understand each other? (Italics ours.) The trial court erred in holding that this line of questioning was irrelevant. The authorities cited unanimously hold that the cross-examiner may question the witness as to his bias or interest (such as by the prosecution's leverage of a pending charge against him, State v. Lewis, cited above). The State suggests that the trial court's ruling did not prohibit the defendant from asking more specific questions to develop bias, interest, or corruption, such as: Did you enter the narcotics field because of a burning hatred for all people who might be involved in the narcotics traffic?; Were you induced into becoming a narcotics agent because you had been a narcotics dealer?; Did someone named Senegal sell your sister marijuana, impelling you to join a crusade against narcotics? ; Did you enter the field because, if you continue to make cases, you get a good expense account? Fairly construed, however, the trial court's ruling effectively cut off the defendant from any further questions to explore the area of questioning: any bias or interest of the state witness Allison in serving as undercover narcotics agent which might influence his perceptions or color his testimony. The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that a defendant in a criminal case be allowed within traditional limits to impeach the credibility of a prosecution witness by cross-examination directed at possible bias or interest. In Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L. Ed.2d 347 (1974), the United States Supreme Court so held, in a near-unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Burger. There, an Alaska juvenile law prohibiting disclosure of juvenile proceedings was invalidated, insofar as it prevented the defense from developing any bias or interest of a prosecution witness which might have arisen out of his probationary status as a juvenile. In so holding, the Supreme Court held, 415 U.S. 315, 94 S.Ct. 1110, 39 L.Ed.2d 353: The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right of an accused in a criminal prosecution `to be confronted with the witnesses against him.' This right is secured for defendants in state as well as federal criminal proceedings under Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965). Confrontation means more than being allowed to confront the witness physically. `Our cases construing the [confrontation] clause hold that a primary interest secured by it is the right of cross examination.'    Cross-examination is the principal means by which the believability of a witness and the truth of his testimony are tested. Subject always to the broad discretion of a trial judge to preclude repetitive and unduly harassing interrogation, the cross-examiner is not only permitted to delve into the witness' story to the witness' perceptions and memory, but the cross-examiner has traditionally been allowed to impeach, i.e., discredit, the witness.. . . A more particular attack on the witness' credibility is effected by means of cross-examination directed toward revealing possible biases, prejudices, or ulterior motives of the witness as they may relate directly to issues or personalities in the case at hand. The partiality of a witness is subject to exploration at trial, and is `always relevant as discrediting the witness and affecting the weight of his testimony.' 3A Wigmore, Evidence § 940, at 775 (Chadbourn rev. 1970). We have recognized that the exposure of a witness' motivation in testifying is a proper and important function of the constitutionally protected rights of cross-examination. Greene v. McElroy, 360 U.S. 474, 496, 79 S.Ct. 1400, 1413, 3 L.Ed.2d 1377 (1959). At Wigmore on Evidence (Chadbourn rev. 1970), the impeachment of a witness for bias, interest, or corruption is discussed at Sections 940-69. The treatise notes that the largest possible scope of cross-examination is permitted for impeachment on this ground. Section 944. The decisions of our own jurisprudence also are generally in accord. They have generally permitted full scope of cross-examination in the interests of exposing, for jury evaluation, any bias or interest of the witness, which might influence his perceptions or color his testimony. See, e.g., State v. Chambers, 263 La. 1080, 270 So.2d 514 (1972); State v. Lewis, 236 La. 473, 108 So.2d 93 (1959); State v. Elias, 229 La. 929, 87 So.2d 132 (1956); Pugh, Louisiana Evidence Law 110-11 (1974). Decisions suggesting that the prejudice must be personal or direct against the defendant are generally distinguishable. If not arising under special facts, [1] for the most part they concern examination as to either general prejudices or special biases or interests irrelevant to or too remote from the issues of the case at trial. See, e.g., State v. Darby, 310 So.2d 547 (La.1975); State v. Howard, 230 La. 327, 88 So.2d 387 (1956); State v. Cullens, 168 La. 976, 123 So. 645 (1929). In State v. Elias, 229 La. 929, 87 So.2d 132 (1950), we held that a substantial denial of the right to cross-examine for bias or interest cannot be regarded as harmless error, for it violates a right of confrontation fundamental to a fair trial. If we were in doubt as to reversal, however, we believe that the cumulative error represented by the above and by Assignment Two (see below) effectively denied the defendant his constitutional and statutory rights of cross-examination of the state witnesses against him.