Opinion ID: 2624500
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence Designed to Raise Lingering Doubt

Text: Defendant next asserts the trial court erred in excluding significant evidence relevant to his defense of lingering doubt. He argues the error violated his federal and state constitutional rights to due process, to present a defense, to compulsory process, and to a fair and reliable determination of penalty. We disagree. (14) Although a capital defendant has no federal constitutional right to have the jury consider lingering doubt in choosing the appropriate penalty ( People v. Gay (2008) 42 Cal.4th 1195, 1220 [73 Cal.Rptr.3d 442, 178 P.3d. 422]), evidence of the circumstances of the offense, including evidence that may create a lingering doubt as to the defendant's guilt of the offense, is admissible at a penalty retrial as a factor in mitigation under section 190.3 (42 Cal.4th at pp. 1218-1220). The `circumstances of the crime' as used in section 190.3, factor (a), `does not mean merely the immediate temporal and spatial circumstances of the crime. Rather it extends to [t]hat which surrounds materially, morally, or logically the crime.' ( People v. Blair (2005) 36 Cal.4th 686, 749 [31 Cal.Rptr.3d 485, 115 P.3d 1145].) A defendant, however, has no right to introduce evidence not otherwise admissible at the penalty phase for the purpose of creating a doubt as to his or her guilt. (See People v. Blair, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 750; People v. Gay, supra, 42 Cal.4th at p. 1220.) `The test for admissibility is not whether the evidence tends to prove the defendant did not commit the crime, but, whether it relates to the circumstances of the crime or the aggravating or mitigating circumstances.' [Citation.] ( Id. at p. 1223.) The evidence must not be unreliable ( People v. Blair, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 750), incompetent, irrelevant, lack probative value, or solely attack the legality of the prior adjudication ( People v. Terry (1964) 61 Cal.2d 137, 144, 145, fn. 5 [37 Cal.Rptr. 605, 390 P.2d 381]; People v. Gay, supra, 42 Cal.4th at p. 1219). Error in admitting or excluding evidence at the penalty phase of a capital trial is reversible if there is a reasonable possibility it affected the verdict. ( People v. Lancaster (2007) 41 Cal.4th 50, 94 [58 Cal.Rptr.3d 608, 158 P.3d 157]; see People v. Guerra (2006) 37 Cal.4th 1067, 1144-1145 [40 Cal.Rptr.3d 118, 129 P.3d 321].)
Defendant first asserts the trial court erred in excluding the opinion of Criminalist Joseph Orantes that the fact the killer dismembered or otherwise disfigured the victim would tend to suggest that he sought to hide the victim's identity, which in turn would tend to suggest that he knew the victim. Orantes would have testified that, sometime in the early 1980's, during a crime laboratory directors association meeting at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, he attended a four-hour presentation on the elements of criminal profiling in which he learned that the presenters from the FBI had observed in a number of cases that when a victim is disfigured, it tends to suggest that the killer knows the victim. He also would have testified to his involvement in the investigation of two cases in which the killer disfigured the victim and knew the victim, and one case in which the police suspected, but could not firmly establish, such a connection. He acknowledged, however, that the information he received in the FBI course was anecdotal, lacked any statistical foundation, was not included in any published data and was intended for use only as an investigative tool, and that he could not remember the names or any details of the cases in which he was involved. (15) The trial court correctly found the proffered testimony, based on imprecise facts and limited experience, lacked an adequate foundation for an expert opinion (see Evid. Code, § 801 [expert opinion limited to special knowledge, skill, experience, training, education of a type reasonably relied on]), and was insufficiently probative on the issue of defendant's guilt. Even if the court abused its discretion, however, defendant has not established a reasonable possibility that the error affected the verdict. ( People v. Lancaster, supra, 41 Cal.4th at p. 94.) Defendant's conclusion, that the dismemberment of the body had a tendency to prove the killer was someone other than defendant, was speculative at best.
Defendant's second argument is the court erred in limiting the testimony of Dr. Lipson, a clinical and forensic psychologist who would have testified he consulted with defendant and suggested that the police should have conducted more investigation into Terry Buchanan as a possible suspect. At a hearing in limine, Dr. Lipson testified that Terry Buchanan had a juvenile record, a Navy record that reflected some events related to alcohol abuse, and a police record from Las Cruces, New Mexico, related to a documented event of domestic violence involving his second wife. He also testified that police reports revealed Terry told his mother he had a recurring dream in which Fran was being tortured with a knife to her throat. The trial court ruled the proffered evidence had little probative value and was not admissible as evidence of third party culpability. Defendant now argues the trial court erred, in that he offered Dr. Lipson's testimony not simply to establish Terry Buchanan's possible guilt, but to raise a lingering doubt by showing that the unusual circumstances of this crime made it unlikely that defendant was the killer and that the police conducted an inadequate investigation in focusing solely on defendant. (16) We disagree. `Relevant evidence is defined in Evidence Code section 210 as evidence `having any tendency in reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action.' The test of relevance is whether the evidence tends `logically, naturally, and by reasonable inference to establish material facts such as identity, intent, or motive. [Citations.]' [Citation.] The trial court has broad discretion in determining the relevance of evidence [citations] but lacks discretion to admit irrelevant evidence. [Citations.]' ( People v. Carter (2005) 36 Cal.4th 1114, 1166-1167 [32 Cal.Rptr.3d 759, 117 P.3d 476].) (17) The trial court correctly concluded that none of the proffered evidence would have been relevant to defendant's efforts to raise a lingering doubt as to his guilt. Contrary to defendant's argument, the proffered evidence would not have established that Terry Buchanan was a viable third party suspect. [T]he standard for admitting evidence of third party culpability [is] the same as for other exculpatory evidence: the evidence [has] to be relevant under Evidence Code section 350, and its probative value [cannot] be `substantially outweighed by the risk of undue delay, prejudice, or confusion' under Evidence Code section 352. ( People v. Kaurish (1990) 52 Cal.3d 648, 685 [276 Cal.Rptr. 788, 802 P.2d 278], citing People v. Hall (1986) 41 Cal.3d 826, 833 [226 Cal.Rptr. 112, 718 P.2d 99].) To be admissible, the third-party evidence need not show `substantial proof of a probability' that the third person committed the act; it need only be capable of raising a reasonable doubt of defendant's guilt. At the same time, we do not require that any evidence, however remote, must be admitted to show a third party's possible culpability.... [E]vidence of mere motive or opportunity to commit the crime in another person, without more, will not suffice to raise a reasonable doubt about a defendant's guilt: there must be direct or circumstantial evidence linking the third person to the actual perpetration of the crime. ( People v. Hall, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 833.) The proffered evidence regarding Terry Buchanan did nothing to connect him to the crime in any manner. It therefore was inadmissible as evidence of third party culpability and irrelevant to the issue of lingering doubt. Further, the proffered evidence would not have established that good reason existed for the police to suspect someone other than defendant. Contrary to defendant's assertions, the circumstances of the crime point to no one other than defendant as the killer of Eleanore Buchanan. Defendant admitted he stole her van near the place and time her classmates last saw her alive. Sheriff's deputies found her blood on his shoe inside the van. The route defendant drove from San Diego to Terrell, Texas, passed near the site where Harry Piper, the target shooter, discovered her dismembered body. Defendant claimed he never saw Eleanore Buchanan, alive or dead, yet in early interviews with the police, he accurately described the clothing she wore the night of her murder. None of the proffered evidence from Dr. Lipson challenged any of the evidence against defendant or otherwise raised a lingering doubt by suggesting that someone other than he was responsible for the murder.
Finally, defendant argues the trial court erred in refusing, under Evidence Code section 352, to allow evidence that in 1988 and 1989, years after his 1981 conviction, the district attorney's office conducted investigations into allegations that Jessie Moffett, a defendant in another murder case, bragged to others that he took part in the murder of Eleanore Buchanan. Again, we find no error. Before the penalty retrial, defendant learned that in 1988, detectives of the San Diego Police Department interrogated one Rory Keller regarding a series of residential robberies. During the interrogation, Keller told Detective Bordine that her boyfriend, Jessie Moffett, confessed to her that in 1979 he was involved in several murders, including the one that Bernard Hamilton got blamed for. [15] Keller also told Bordine that her mother, Geraldine Elmore, told her that a Clarence Horn told her defendant was at his house at the time of Eleanore Buchanan's murder and therefore could not have participated in the murder. Investigators interviewed Geraldine Elmore in 1989. [16] Defendant now argues the court erred in not allowing him to support his defense of lingering doubt by establishing, through the testimony of the investigators, the fact that investigation continued into the murder of Eleanore Buchanan years after defendant's conviction for the crime. The trial court did not err. The record reveals the investigators concluded the only evidence that might have implicated Jessie Moffett in the murder of Eleanore Buchanan was this one kind of wild hair statement of Rory Keller. The court did not abuse its discretion in concluding this evidence bore little probative value to the defense of lingering doubt and thus properly excluded it under Evidence Code section 352.