Opinion ID: 764076
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Limitation on Testimony Regarding Fields's Motive

Text: 50 Johnson's next argument on appeal is that the trial court's limitation on his cross-examination of Fields regarding Fields's motive to kill Officer Langham violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause, as incorporated to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The trial court's grant of the state's motion in limine prevented the introduction of testimony or evidence concerning Fields's belief that Officer Langham had previously killed an African-American man. According to Johnson, the court's ruling prevented him from effectively impeaching Fields by showing that he had a motive to kill Officer Langham. 51 The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected Johnson's argument in his direct appeal, concluding that [t]he mere fact Langham had [previously] killed a black man in and of itself had no relevancy to this case. Id. at 211. Whether the trial court's refusal to allow cross-examination on this subject violated Johnson's constitutional rights is a mixed question of law and fact that this court reviews de novo. See Gochicoa, 118 F.3d at 445. A state court's evidentiary rulings present cognizable habeas claims only if they run afoul of a specific constitutional right or render the petitioner's trial fundamentally unfair. See Cupit v. Whitley, 28 F.3d 532, 536 (5th Cir.1994). 52 We are unpersuaded by Johnson's argument that his inability to delve into whether Fields was aware that Officer Langham had previously killed an African-American man violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause. [T]rial judges retain wide latitude insofar as the Confrontation Clause is concerned to impose reasonable limits on such cross-examination based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). In order to determine whether a trial court's restriction on cross-examination is reasonable, we must assess whether the jury was given adequate information to appraise the bias and motives of the witness. United States v. Mizell, 88 F.3d 288, 293 (5th Cir.1996); see United States v. Cooks, 52 F.3d 101, 104 (5th Cir.1995). 53 The trial judge in this case allowed extensive testimony and questioning regarding potential sources of Fields's bias and his credibility as a witness. First, throughout the cross-examination of Fields, Johnson's attorney questioned Fields regarding multiple inconsistent statements Fields had made before Johnson's trial. Second, Johnson's attorney questioned Fields extensively regarding Fields's guilty plea to accessory after the fact and his incentive to testify that Johnson had killed Officer Langham in order to exculpate himself of the killing. Third, Fields admitted on cross-examination that, during some portion of his direct-examination testimony, he was not testifying from personal knowledge, but rather that he was relying on information provided by the investigators that were questioning him. Further, Fields admitted on cross-examination that sometimes when he get[s] nervous and upset, it's hard for [him] to tell the truth, and that he was nervous and upset when he gave several statements to the authorities. In addition, Fairley's testimony that he had seen Fields murder Officer Langham raised a strong inference that Fields was lying. Given the testimony the jury heard regarding Fields's incentive to testify favorably for the state, we do not believe that the jury would have received a significantly different impression of Fields's credibility had defense counsel been able to cross-examine Fields on his belief that Officer Langham had killed an African-American man. See Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. at 680, 106 S.Ct. 1431; Mizell, 88 F.3d at 294 (concluding that excluded impeachment evidence did not violate defendant's Confrontation Clause rights, given extensive admitted impeachment evidence); United States v. Hamilton, 48 F.3d 149, 155 (5th Cir.1995) (concluding that because so much additional impeachment evidence was admitted, trial judge's refusal to allow impeachment of witness in certain area could not have affected the trial so as to prejudice [the defendant's] substantial rights). 54 We are also convinced that the trial court's refusal to allow testimony on whether Fields believed that Officer Langham had previously killed an African-American man did not violate Johnson's rights under the Due Process Clause by rendering Johnson's trial fundamentally unfair. The failure to admit evidence amounts to a due process violation only when the omitted evidence is a crucial, critical, highly significant factor in the context of the entire trial. See Thomas v. Lynaugh, 812 F.2d 225, 230 (5th Cir.1987). Again, we agree with the district court that the mere fact that Fields may have known that Officer Langham had killed an African-American man would not have been a crucial, critical, highly significant factor in the context of the entire trial. 55 Johnson also argues that his rights under the Confrontation Clause were violated because the trial court refused to allow the defense to [ ]examine Fairley on a statement made to him by Fields that '[Fields] knew the Highway Patrolman had murdered a black person and that if [Fields] let him go he thought the Highway Patrolman would go for his gun and kill us before we could leave.'  We find no authority in support of Johnson's assertion that his rights under the Confrontation Clause extend to the opportunity to impeach the state's primary witness through the testimony of a witness favorable to the defense. 7 See, e.g., Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 315-16, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974) (The main and essential purpose of confrontation is to secure for the opponent the opportunity of cross-examination.) (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original); cf. United States v. Kindig, 854 F.2d 703, 709 (5th Cir.1988) (stating that Confrontation Clause is not implicated where witness's testimony is not adverse to defendant). 56 Further, we note that, despite Fairley's assertion in his affidavit that he was not allowed to testify to his entire statement, the motion in limine did not prevent Fairley from testifying that Fields had admitted to killing Officer Langham or that Fields was worried that if he let [Officer Langham] go he thought the Highway Patrolman would go for his gun and kill us before we could leave. The motion in limine therefore only prevented Fairley from testifying that Fields believed that Officer Langham had previously killed an African-American man. The omission of this information, as we concluded supra, did not amount to a violation of Johnson's due process rights. We therefore affirm the district court's denial of habeas relief on this ground. 57