Opinion ID: 771202
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Reopen the Evidence to Permit Peterson to Testify

Text: 15 At trial, after the defense rested, the court told the jury to expect closing arguments within the hour and went into recess; after recess, the court held a brief charging conference. At the end of the conference, counsel for Peterson told the court that Peterson now wished to testify on his own behalf. Counsel noted that, until now, Peterson had agreed with his attorney's decision not to put on any evidence in the case. Furthermore, counsel advised the court that for ethical reasons he could not examine Peterson if Peterson were allowed to testify. The district court refused to reopen the evidence in order to allow Peterson to testify. Peterson claims that the district court's refusal to do so violated his constitutional right to testify in his own defense. 16 It is true that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to testify in his own defense. See Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44, 49 (1987). However, the right to testify is not absolute; it must sometimes bow to accommodate other legitimate interests in the criminal trial process. Id. at 55 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Hence, a defendant does not have an unrestricted right to testify at any point during trial. Generally, if he wishes to testify, he must do so before he rests his case; otherwise, he can move the trial court to reopen the evidence, but the choice whether to reopen is left to the court's sound discretion. See United States v. Santana, 175 F.3d 57, 64 (1st Cir. 1999). Such a rule serves to ensure that the trial proceeds in a fair and orderly manner, with the defendant's testimony occurring when the judge, jury, and prosecution reasonably expect it. See United States v. Jones, 880 F.2d 55, 59-60 (8th Cir. 1988). 17 Thus, in reviewing whether the district court properly exercised its discretion not to reopen the evidence, we look to whether the court properly weighed the defendant's right to testify against the need for order and fairness in the proceedings. See Rock, 483 U.S. at 56 (In applying its evidentiary rules a [court] must evaluate whether the interests served by a rule justify the limitation imposed on the defendant's constitutional right to testify.) In conducting this inquiry, we find helpful the Fifth Circuit's decision in United States v. Walker, 772 F.2d 1172 (5th Cir. 1985), where the court enumerated the factors a district court must consider in deciding whether to reopen the evidence to allow a defendant to testify: 18 In exercising its discretion, the court must consider the timeliness of the motion, the character of the testimony, and the effect of the granting of the motion. The party moving to reopen should provide a reasonable explanation for failure to present the evidence in its case-in-chief. The evidence proffered should be relevant, admissible, technically adequate, and helpful to the jury in ascertaining the guilt or innocence of the accused. The belated receipt of such testimony should not imbue the evidence with distorted importance, prejudice the opposing party's case, or preclude an adversary from having an adequate opportunity to meet the additional evidence offered. 19 Walker, 772 F.2d at 1177 (citations and quotation marks omitted). 3 In short, the court must consider whether the likely value of the defendant's testimony outweighs the potential for disruption or prejudice in the proceedings, and if so whether the defendant has a reasonable excuse for failing to present the testimony during his case-in-chief. 20 Peterson argues that, given the timeliness of his motion to reopen, it posed no threat of disrupting or prejudicing the proceedings. We agree that the small delay posed a relatively small threat. Peterson moved to reopen approximately a half-hour after the defense rested. During that time, counsel for both sides prepared their closing arguments during recess, and the court then conducted a very simple charging conference lasting no more than a few minutes; other than that, nothing of substance took place. Thus, while reopening the evidence always can be expected to disrupt trial proceedings to some extent, here the disruption would have been comparatively minor. Compare United States v. Parker, 73 F.3d 48, 54 (5th Cir.), opinion vacated upon reh'g en banc, 80 F.3d 1042 (5th Cir. 1996), and reinstated in relevant part, 104 F.3d 72 (5th Cir. 1997) (finding timeliness of motion to reopen to weigh in defendant's favor where motion was made one hour after defense rested, during which hour court recessed for lunch), with Walker, 772 F.2d at 1177 (finding delay of one day to weigh slightly against defendant), and United States v. Paz, 927 F.2d 176, 179 (4th Cir. 1991) (no abuse of discretion in denying motion to reopen where motion was made after verdict was reached). 21 Nonetheless, while small, the potential for disruption upon reopening the evidence was not insignificant. For example, reopening the evidence may have confused the jurors after they had been told to expect closing arguments when they returned from recess. Moreover, Peterson's attorney had indicated he would not be able to participate in any examination of Peterson, posing procedural problems for the judge if Peterson were permitted to testify. Given the potential for disruption in this sense, the district court was at liberty to deny the motion to reopen if Peterson's testimony was likely to be of little value. And the record sufficiently supports that conclusion. Peterson gave the court hardly any indication as to what he wished to testify about, stating only he just want[ed] to bring out certain facts about certain issues that his counsel allegedly failed to develop during cross-examination of the government's witnesses. In the court's opinion, Peterson was playing games, possibly maneuvering to lay the grounds for a future 2255 petition -- a suspicion bolstered by the fact that throughout the trial, Peterson had, on the record, accused his attorney of working for the government and deliberately attempting to throw the trial. Cf. United States v. Stewart, 20 F.3d 911, 917 (8th Cir. 1994) (no abuse of discretion where value of defendant's testimony was cast in doubt by previous efforts to delay and disrupt trial). Most important, Peterson's attorney cast grave doubt over the likely value of Peterson's testimony by repeatedly insisting that he would not be able to put Peterson on the stand given his ethical duties to the court -- thereby strongly suggesting that Peterson planned to commit perjury. Ordinarily, in light of the defendant's constitutional right to testify, we would presume a defendant's testimony to be of significant value, see Walker, 772 F.2d at 1178 (finding testimony of a defendant in his own trial to be of inherent significance); but the facts of this case are sufficient to rebut this presumption. 22 Finally, as to the reasonableness of Peterson's excuse for not testifying during his case-in-chief, Peterson offered no excuse, let alone a reasonable one. Peterson had ample time during his case-in-chief to offer testimony; he admitted that he and counsel had agreed that he would not exercise this option. Even assuming Peterson's testimony would have been valuable, Peterson still owed the court some sort of reasonable explanation for his sudden change in tack. Cf., e.g., Parker, 73 F.3d at 54 (finding defense counsel's mistake reasonable excuse); Walker, 772 F.2d at 1183-84 (finding not significantly unreasonable defendant's excuse that during case-in-chief he was too emotionally distraught to testify). Without such a requirement of excuse, the rule generally limiting testimony to the evidence-taking stage of a trial would hardly be a rule at all, and it would be too easy for a defendant to postpone testifying for strategic reasons until after the close of evidence. 23 In these circumstances, we find no abuse of discretion and no infringement of Peterson's constitutional right to testify.