Opinion ID: 1170873
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Refusal to Let the Defense Read From a Magazine Article

Text: (28a) The court declined to allow defendant's counsel, during his summation, to read from a Scientific American article by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus on eyewitness identification. Because the reliability of Schmidt-Till's identification of his assailant was probably the key issue in the case, he contends the alleged error compels reversal. In appropriate circumstances it may be an abuse of discretion for the court to exclude expert testimony on the reliability of eyewitness identification. ( People v. McDonald (1984) 37 Cal.3d 351, 377 [208 Cal. Rptr. 236, 690 P.2d 709, 46 A.L.R.4th 1011].) We begin by noting this is not such a case. The issue here is not the admissibility of potentially relevant testimony, but the use in summation of an article, not in evidence, published in a popular scientific magazine. [6] Defendant claims that he had a right to read the article during final argument. The point must be rejected. Counsel's summation may be based on matters in evidence or subject to judicial notice. It may also refer to matters of common knowledge or illustrations drawn from experience, history, or literature. ( People v. Love (1961) 56 Cal.2d 720, 730 [16 Cal. Rptr. 777, 366 P.2d 33].) On this record we cannot determine whether summation incorporating the reading of the Loftus article would have been proper: defendant apparently did not inform the trial court of the contents of the article, nor did he provide us with a copy. [7]