Opinion ID: 796597
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State's Efforts to Procure Witness Shelton for Trial Were Reasonable

Text: 24 The threshold issue for consideration is Hamilton's complaint that the State did not make a good faith effort to obtain Shelton for trial. Hamilton primarily points to the State's third motion to declare Shelton unavailable, which was based on the prosecutor's conversations with Shelton's commander revealing that Shelton would not be allowed to travel due to discipline problems and that Shelton did not desire to travel, and to information developed on January 2, 2001, that Shelton was willing to travel to the United States, but only if he were routed through Atlanta. 25 The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment strives to ensure that a criminal defendant may have a jury assess the prosecution's witnesses face to face. Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237, 242-43, 15 S.Ct. 337, 39 L.Ed. 409 (1895); U.S. Const. amend. VI. ([I]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him.). Thus, the prosecution may not substitute former testimony for live testimony unless the government first demonstrates that the witness remains unavailable for trial proceedings. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 65, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980), overruled on other grounds, Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). The unavailability exception contains two requirements. First, the exception mandates that the witness's testimony was given at previous judicial proceedings against the same defendant which was subject to cross-examination by that defendant. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 54, 124 S.Ct. 1354 ([T]he common law in 1791 conditioned admissibility of an absent witness's examination on ... a prior opportunity to cross-examine. The Sixth Amendment therefore incorporates [that] limitation[].). Second, a witness cannot be deemed unavailable for purposes of the exception unless the government has made a good faith effort to obtain her presence at the trial proceedings. Roberts, 448 U.S. at 74, 100 S.Ct. 2531. 26 Roberts further refined the good faith standard, explaining that good faith efforts are context-specific: 27 The law does not require the doing of a futile act. Thus, if no possibility of procuring the witness exists ... good faith demands nothing of the prosecution. 28 [474 F.3d 859] 29 But if there is a possibility, albeit remote, that affirmative measures might produce the declarant, the obligation of good faith may demand their effectuation. The lengths to which a prosecution must go to produce a witness is a question of reasonableness. The ultimate question is whether the witness is unavailable despite good-faith efforts undertaken prior to trial to locate and present that witness. As with other evidentiary proponents, the prosecution bears the burden of establishing this predicate. 30 Id. at 74-75, 100 S.Ct. 2531 (internal citations and quotations omitted). 31 If the desired witness is beyond the subpoena power of the trial state but an established procedure of voluntary cooperation exists, then the government must go to reasonable lengths to utilize that procedure to locate, contact, and arrange to reasonably transport the witness. Barber v. Page, 390 U.S. 719, 720, 88 S.Ct. 1318, 20 L.Ed.2d 255 (1968), considered the constitutionality of the trial court's admittance of preliminary hearing testimony of a witness who at the time of trial was incarcerated in a federal prison in Texas. The state in Barber made no efforts to procure the witness for trial after ascertaining that he was in a federal prison outside Oklahoma, the prosecuting state. Id. at 723, 88 S.Ct. 1318. Although the previously accepted rule was that confrontation is unnecessary if a witness — outside the jurisdiction of the trial court — could not be compelled to trial, the Court discredited that view. Id. It noted that a federal statute grants federal courts the power to issue writs ad testificandum at the request of state prosecutors, and that the United States Bureau of Prisons permits federal prisoners to testify in state court criminal proceedings pursuant to writs ad testificandum issued out of state courts. Id. at 724, 88 S.Ct. 1318. The state prosecution's failure to pursue the witness was unreasonable, because the possibility of a refusal is not the equivalent of asking and receiving a rebuff. Id. (internal citations and quotations omitted). Thus Barber held that a witness is not `unavailable' for purposes of the foregoing exception to the confrontation requirement unless the prosecutorial authorities have made a good-faith effort to obtain his presence at trial. Id. at 724-25, 88 S.Ct. 1318; see also Brumley, 269 F.3d at 641 (finding a lack of good faith where the prosecution failed to utilize the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without a State in Criminal Proceedings to secure a witness housed in prison in a different state). 32 If, however, the witness is beyond the subpoena power of the prosecuting state and no established means of communication and voluntary cooperation exist for procuring the witness, the government arguably need not even seek a rebuff. See Mancusi v. Stubbs, 408 U.S. 204, 92 S.Ct. 2308, 33 L.Ed.2d 293 (1972). In Mancusi, a victim who testified at the first trial left the country and became a permanent resident of Sweden. At the second trial, the state issued a subpoena to the victim's last known address in Texas. Mancusi compared the availability of procedures and policies detailed in Barber allowing state prosecutorial authorities to compel the attendance of witnesses residing in other states with the lack of availability of such procedures for witnesses living in other countries. Id. at 212, 92 S.Ct. 2308. Because no such procedures existed, the Court stated that Tennessee ... was powerless to compel his attendance ... either through its own process or through established procedures. Id. 33 Considered in toto, the relevant evidence supports a finding of reasonableness 34 [474 F.3d 860] 35 with respect to the prosecution's efforts. First, Hamilton does not identify any previously established means of procuring Shelton to testify at trial, unlike the statutory procedures available to the state in Barber and Brumley. In contrast to the witness in Barber, Shelton was serving in the army overseas; he was not incarcerated in a federal prison in a different state. Therefore the available statutory procedures for securing incarcerated witnesses for trials in other states do not apply to Shelton. Moreover, besides the procedure of contacting Shelton's commanding officer in Germany and requesting Shelton's presence at trial, neither Hamilton nor the State identifies any predetermined policies or procedures that the State could — or should — have utilized to bring Shelton to Tennessee for Hamilton's trial. 36 Second, the State worked diligently to produce Shelton, right up until the time of trial. On January 2, 2001, the prosecution learned that Shelton was willing to travel if he could go through Atlanta, Georgia. However, Shelton's commander advised that it was too late to arrange any flights for Shelton from Germany through Atlanta in the days remaining before trial. 1 37 Hamilton insists that the State unreasonably abandoned its efforts to arrange Shelton's presence after Shelton agreed to travel to the United States. He avers that rather than investigating commercial flights and travel plans that would include a layover in Atlanta, the State gave up. He argues that a number of possible explanations that the State might offer for failing to produce Shelton at trial — inter alia, that the expense of last-minute international travel was prohibitive, that Shelton's condition on flying through Atlanta constituted a rejection of the State's offer, or that the prosecutor was not responsible for the lateness of his efforts because he had been informed previously that Shelton would not be able or willing to travel to trial — are excuses concocted to obscure the State's failure to take the steps necessary to protect Hamilton's constitutional rights. However, this argument lacks a factual basis and thus amounts to no more than mere speculation. Indeed, the record reflects that the State did not abandon its efforts; rather, the State continued to attempt to reach Shelton throughout the week leading up to Hamilton's trial but was unable to speak with him before the trial date. 2 Moreover, the motion by the State averred that it was too late to arrange 38 [474 F.3d 861] 39 any flights through Atlanta prior to trial. 40 As the TCCA found, the State's efforts here were reasonable, based in part on the steps taken to secure Shelton months in advance of the trial. Those efforts were thwarted: first, by Captain Watson's refusal to permit Shelton to travel to the United States to testify due to his previous discipline problems and absences without leave; and second, by Shelton's deployment to Kosovo for six months. The State's first two motions to declare Shelton unavailable were accompanied by letters from Shelton's commanding officer indicating the difficulties with securing his presence at trial. This evidence buttresses the State's position, despite the absence of evidence submitted to the trial court in support of its third and final motion to admit Shelton's prior testimony. See United States v. Sindona, 636 F.2d 792, 804 (2d Cir.1980) (Although it would have been preferable to present the court with affidavits, the fact that trial counsel for the Government presented the factual situation orally is not fatal. It is proper for the court to accept, in its discretion, the representations of counsel with respect to the availability of a witness.). 3 41 For these reasons, the TCCA correctly concluded that the State went to reasonable lengths to secure Shelton's presence at Hamilton's trial. 42