Opinion ID: 1060373
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Deposition of Jack Charles Blankenship

Text: In a deposition taken in 1995 for Austin's federal habeas corpus proceedings, Blankenship denied that Austin had any involvement in Watkins' murder. During the resentencing hearing, however, Blankenship repudiated his prior statements. To counter Blankenship's testimony, the defense cross-examined Blankenship concerning his prior statements and then sought to introduce as substantive evidence the 1995 deposition of Blankenship in its entirety. The trial court denied the request but permitted the deposition to be marked as an exhibit for the limited purpose of impeaching the witness. The court instructed the jury accordingly. As we have previously stated, hearsay is admissible in a capital sentencing hearing. Blankenship's 1995 deposition was relevant to rebut the aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed for remuneration and to support residual doubt as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. Therefore, the trial court erred in not allowing the deposition to be used as substantive evidence. Although the trial court did not completely exclude the deposition, the limitation on the jury's consideration of the deposition potentially undermined the reliability of the sentencing determination and is, therefore, an error of constitutional magnitude. Cf. Cauthern, 967 S.W.2d at 739. Austin contends that the error was not harmless for several reasons. First, he argues that the limitation on the jury's consideration of the deposition cannot be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the deposition was relevant to rebut the only aggravating circumstance. Austin has presented no authority and we have found no support for a per se reversible error rule in cases where only one aggravating circumstance exists. Second, Austin contends that the only other proof supporting the aggravating circumstancethe testimony of Terry Casteellacked credibility. Contrary to Austin's assertion, overwhelming evidence, including the testimony of Marilyn Pryor corroborating Casteel's testimony, supported the aggravating circumstance. Finally, Austin asserts that the error cannot be harmless because Blankenship's testimony in the deposition was compelling and unequivocal. The jury was in the best position to assess the credibility of Blankenship. If, despite vigorous cross-examination, the jury believed Blankenship's recantation of his prior deposition testimony, it is unlikely that reading the entire deposition into evidence would have produced a different result. In a similar case, we found the exclusion of such mitigating evidence to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Stout, 46 S.W.3d at 705. In Stout , the defendant sought to introduce the testimony of two accomplices in an effort to show that his own involvement in the murder was minor. The defendant also sought to call a chaplain to testify about a gang practice of blaming crimes on former members. Although we concluded that the trial court erred in excluding the proposed mitigating evidence, we held that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The testimony of the accomplices was of dubious value because they had testified during the guilt phase that the defendant led the offenses and shot the victim. Id. Likewise, other evidence was presented regarding the defendant's theory that he was falsely accused by gang members, and this evidence obviously was rejected by the jury. Id. Like the evidence in Stout , the excluded evidence in this case was of dubious value. Blankenship testified at the resentencing hearing that Austin hired him to kill Watkins. The 1995 deposition proclaiming Austin's innocence likely would not have been very persuasive to the jury since Blankenship fully admitted that the deposition testimony was false. Additionally, just as in Stout , Austin presented other proof to support his residual doubt theory, and the proof obviously was rejected by the jury. In State v. Hartman, 42 S.W.3d 44 (Tenn.2001), we reversed the sentence because of a combination of errors: the exclusion of evidence relevant to residual doubt as a mitigating circumstance and insufficient evidence to support one of the aggravating circumstances. Id. at 59. The present case is distinguishable from Hartman . Unlike Hartman , the jury in this case did not rely on an invalid aggravating circumstance. Moreover, the residual doubt evidence in this case was not completely excluded. Substantial portions of the deposition were read to the jury during Blankenship's testimony. The entire deposition was introduced as an exhibit. The jury was precluded only from considering the deposition as substantive evidence. The practical effect of using the deposition for impeachment purposes was not much different than introducing it as substantive evidence. The jury was presented with two theories: either Austin hired Blankenship to commit the murder or Austin did not. Rejection of the first theory would necessarily mean acceptance of the second. If the jury had found that the deposition impeached Blankenship's credibility, then the jury would not have believed Blankenship's testimony at the resentencing hearing and would have found, instead, that Austin did not hire Blankenship to murder Watkins. It is not likely that the result would have been any different if the deposition had been introduced as substantive evidence. The limitation on the jury's consideration of the deposition did not affect the jury's decision to Austin's prejudice and was, therefore, harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.