Opinion ID: 1998252
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Flight Instruction Was Improper In The Case Sub Judice

Text: Mr. Thompson argues that even if this Court concludes that flight instructions are not per se improper, the trial judge abused his discretion in giving the flight instruction in the present case because the necessarily circumscribed universe of facts presented to the jury rendered the instruction misleading. Conversely, the State contends that because Mr. Thompson did not object to the admission of the flight evidence, although he knew that the jury would not be informed of his asserted alternate motivation for fleeing from the police, the instruction was proper. We conclude that the trial judge abused his discretion in giving the flight instruction under the circumstances presented in the case sub judice. We review a trial judge's decision whether to give a jury instruction under the abuse of discretion standard. Conyers v. State, 354 Md. 132, 177, 729 A.2d 910, 934 (1999); Gunning v. State, 347 Md. 332, 353-54, 701 A.2d 374, 384 (1997). In Thomas v. State, 372 Md. 342, 812 A.2d 1050 (2002), we adopted the four-prong test set forth by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Myers, 550 F.2d 1036 (5th Cir. 1977), with respect to the probative value of evidence indicating consciousness of guilt and the rubric for assessing the propriety of jury instructions based on such evidence. [4] In Myers, the defendant was charged with three counts of armed bank robbery and was subsequently convicted. Id. at 1039. On appeal, Myers argued that the trial court erred in instructing the jury concerning the proper use of evidence indicating that he fled from FBI agents on two occasions ... subsequent to the commission of the robbery. Id. at 1048. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded that the probative value of flight evidence as circumstantial evidence of guilt depends upon the degree of confidence with which four inferences can be drawn: (1) from the defendant's behavior to flight; (2) from flight to consciousness of guilt; (3) from consciousness of guilt to consciousness of guilt concerning the crime charged; and (4) from consciousness of guilt concerning the crime charged to actual guilt of the crime charged. Id. at 1049. Moreover, the Court held that a flight instruction is improper unless the evidence is sufficient to furnish reasonable support for all four of the necessary inferences. Id. at 1050, citing Morris v. United States, 326 F.2d 192, 195 (9th Cir.1963); State v. Bruton, 66 Wash.2d 111, 401 P.2d 340, 341-42 (1965); E. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence § 271 at 655 n. 3 (rev. ed.1972). We agree with those jurisdictions which have determined that a flight instruction should not be given unless the four inferences explicated in Myers reasonably may be drawn. Therefore, for an instruction on flight to be given properly, the following four inferences must reasonably be able to be drawn from the facts of the case as ultimately tried: that the behavior of the defendant suggests flight; that the flight suggests a consciousness of guilt; that the consciousness of guilt is related to the crime charged or a closely related crime; and that the consciousness of guilt of the crime charged suggests actual guilt of the crime charged or a closely related crime. It is the third inference, that the consciousness of guilt was consciousness of guilt of the crimes for which he was on trial, that is at issue in the case sub judice. Myers, 550 F.2d at 1049; Thomas, 372 Md. at 352, 812 A.2d at 1056. In Thomas, we examined the effect of the third Myers prong: It is the Myers third prong, from consciousness of guilt to consciousness of guilt concerning the crime charged, that in the instant case is particularly important. Knowledge that the person is suspected of the charged crime is important because the value of the conduct lies in the culprit's knowledge that he or she has committed the charged offense and in his or her fear of apprehension. In the context of flight, one court noted: `From this analysis of the reasons for the admissibility of such evidence, the force of the rule that evidence of flight because of one crime cannot be considered on the trial of another and entirely different offense is apparent, as in such case the flight does not disclose any guilty conscience in regard to the offense in question.' Thus many courts emphasize the importance of connecting a defendant's consciousness of guilt to a consciousness of guilt for the specific crime alleged. There must be an evidentiary basis, either direct or circumstantial, to connect a defendant's consciousness of guilt to the particular crime charged. Thomas, 372 Md. at 354-55, 812 A.2d at 1057 (citations and footnote omitted; emphasis added). The gravamen of the issue is whether Mr. Thompson fled in an attempt to avoid apprehension for the crimes for which he was on trial. In the present case, the jury was not presented with evidence of what may have been an alternative and at least a cogent motive for Mr. Thompson's flight, specifically that drugs were found on his person. [5] During his interview with police, Mr. Thompson asserted that he ran from them because he had drugs in his possession, which, according to the State, amounted to eighty-six vials of crack cocaine at the time of his arrest. He was in essence arrested in flagrante delicto [6] with respect to the crime of possession of controlled dangerous substances. We find that this fact, which was known to all parties involved although not revealed to the jury, undermines the confidence by which the inference could be drawn that Mr. Thompson's flight was motivated by a consciousness of guilt with respect to the crimes for which he was on trial in the present case; it provides a foundation for the alternate, and equally reasonable, inference that Mr. Thompson fled due to the cocaine in his possession, an action a person in his position may have taken irrespective of whether he also shot and attempted to rob Mr. Gottesman. Mr. Thompson thus was placed in a difficult situation where he must either not object to the highly prejudicial evidence concerning his possession of a significant amount of cocaine being introduced to the jury to explain his flight (or perhaps forced to make a Hobson's choice to introduce such evidence himself), or decline to explain his flight and risk that the jury would not infer an alternative explanation for his flight. The Mississippi Supreme Court in Fuselier v. State, 468 So.2d 45 (Miss.1985), addressed a similar situation. In that case, the defendant, an escapee from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, was charged with the murder of a woman as well as the theft of her car. At his trial, the prosecution presented evidence that when police arrived at the house where the defendant was staying, he jumped out of a back window and attempted to run toward some woods. Id. at 57. During the guilt phase of the defendant's trial the fact that he was an escapee from the Louisiana State Penitentiary was not presented to the jury, and at the close of the trial, the trial court gave a flight instruction. The defendant argued that the evidence of his flight did not support the flight instruction because, as an escapee, he had an independent sufficient cause to flee. Id. The Mississippi Supreme Court determined that the defendant was obviously put in a no-win situation by either being required to explain his flight by the fact that he was a prison escapee or not explaining the flight and subjecting himself to a flight instruction. Id. The Court concluded that because the court was aware of an explanation for [the defendant's] flight, which was at that time inadmissible, we are of the of the opinion that the flight instruction should not have been granted. See also Young v. State, 601 So.2d 636, 638 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1992) ([T]he admission of evidence of flight from one crime scene during a short period of time when several crimes have been committed make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine that the flight resulted from feelings of guilt attributable to a particular crime). Where the defendant possesses an innocent explanation that does not risk prejudicing the jury against him, it would be expected that the defendant would present his purported reasons for his flight to the jury. It is error, however, for the trial judge to give such an instruction in a case like the case sub judice where the defendant would be prejudiced by the revelation of the guilty explanation for his flight. The circumstances of the case at bar impaired the confidence with which the inference that Mr. Thompson fled from police due to a consciousness of guilt with respect to the crimes charged could be drawn and rendered the instruction misleading as to the existence of an alternative basis for Mr. Thompson's flight from the police. Because Mr. Thompson could not be expected to introduce the independent basis for his flight, at the risk of prejudicing his position through the admission of being in possession of crack cocaine, no evidence was adduced concerning the other motivations that may be fully consistent with innocence of the crimes for which he was being tried. We cannot be sure whether this silence on his part in the face of the flight instruction impacted the jury's perception of the evidence of flight, such that we cannot assert a belief beyond a reasonable doubt that the erroneous flight instruction did not influence the jury's verdict. Therefore, we conclude that giving the flight instruction constituted an abuse of discretion.