Opinion ID: 1134236
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: did the trial court err in denying the appellant's motion for funds to employ an independent fingerprint expert?

Text: This assignment is based upon Johnson's federal constitutional claim to the due process guarantee of a fundamentally fair trial. It is grounded in the Fourteenth Amendment, to-wit: [N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.... The United States Supreme Court has recognized that when a State brings its judicial power to bear on an indigent defendant in a criminal proceeding, it must ... assure that the defendant has a fair opportunity to present his defense. Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 76, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 1093, 84 L.Ed.2d 53, 61 (1985). See, e.g., Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956) (a trial transcript must be provided to an indigent defendant if necessary to a decision on merits); Burns v. Ohio, 360 U.S. 252, 79 S.Ct. 1164, 3 L.Ed.2d 1209 (1959) (no fee can be required of an indigent defendant before filing appeal of his conviction); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963) (indigent defendant is entitled to counsel at trial); Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963) (legal assistance must be effective); Ake v. Oklahoma, supra (where sanity at the time of the offense is likely to be a significant factor at trial, due process requires the State to provide access to a psychiatrist's assistance to indigent defendant). Thus, Johnson asserts that Ake, supra, is the authority for his being provided funds for an expert witness in fingerprinting at State expense. This same motion was made in Johnson I. At the first trial, Johnson filed a motion for funds to employ an independent fingerprint expert. Johnson asserted that the State had numerous resources, that certain fingerprints had been examined by experts of the State Crime Lab, that an untrained person cannot determine whether two fingerprints are the same, that the defendant is indigent, that to deny the motion would be to deny him due process, that only an expert can determine the identity or lack of identity of fingerprints and that Sam Ivy, a fingerprint expert in Jackson, would conduct the independent fingerprint examination for the defendant for an anticipated fee of $100. The parties stipulated that various individuals, including Ron Smith, fingerprint expert, are all forensic scientists or employees employed by the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson, have participated in, to the extent revealed by discovery reports, and are participating in, the investigation, examination and evaluation of evidence in the case, that their salaries are paid by the state and that their services are only available to law enforcement agencies in the state. The motion was overruled. The defendant orally renewed the motion twice, and the Court twice refused to change its ruling. Ron Smith, the fingerprint examiner with the Mississippi Crime Lab, was the only fingerprint expert to testify at the first trial. He testified that a fingerprint found on a door facing inside the Super Stop was the appellant's fingerprint. Johnson I, 476 So.2d at 1200. This Court's first opinion also states that Smith testified that a red substance found on the print was blood, but he was unable to determine the type. It was not Smith who so testified. Instead, it was Larry Turner, a forensic serologist with the Mississippi Crime Lab. However, Ron Smith did testify that due to the manner the blood was on the ridges of the fingerprints, he was able to determine that the blood had been on appellant's hand when he touched the door facing, rather than the blood having been on the door facing when the appellant put his hand on it. Smith was not able to determine when the print was made. Id. At the second trial, Johnson again filed a motion for funds to employ an independent fingerprint expert. In that motion, Johnson did not give the name and anticipated fee of a fingerprint expert, but rather stated that he would submit to the court the name of a fingerprint expert and the expert's anticipated fee. Defense counsel later orally submitted the name of a retired fingerprint clerk with thirty year in the FBI, John L. Puddister, and stated that the fee would be $25.00 an hour, plus out-of-pocket expenses, including mileage, etc. The court at that time denied funds for such expert. Johnson then filed another motion for authority to employ an independent fingerprint expert and alternative relief. This time, defense counsel added assertions that fingerprints had been examined by the FBI and that he had been advised that the district attorney planned to call a fingerprint specialist, Leroy Walton, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Washington, D.C. as a witness in the case. The court denied the motion orally. The court also overruled the motion for funds to employ an independent expert by written order. At the second trial, the testimony of Ron Smith was basically the same as at the first trial except that he did not identify to whom the latent print belonged. Rather, he testified of his delivery of the print to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. Walton, a supervisor fingerprint specialist with the FBI, who had worked in the field for 30 and 1/2 years, testified that the print found on the door facing at the Super Stop was the same as the inked print given him and identified as Leon Johnson. Interestingly, he was not asked, nor did he testify, concerning the prior presence of the reddish substance on the finger. In Johnson I, this Court noted that on this very issue, the U.S. Supreme Court left undisturbed this Court's holding that the Constitution does not require a state to furnish an indigent defendant with expert or investigative assistance upon demand. 476 So.2d at 1202 [citing Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985)]. This Court did recognize that the doctrine of fundamental fairness, guaranteed by the due process clause, at times requires authorization for appointment of a particular expert or investigator. Id. This Court quoted Ruffin v. State, 447 So.2d 113, 118 (Miss. 1984), as follows: There is no merit in this assignment of error. That there can conceivably be instances when the state in fairness should be required to pay the cost of an expert needed by the defense to insure a fair trial for an indigent accused must be conceded. Those cases can only be left to the discretion of the trial court, and they will be rare. See: U.S. v. Baldi, 344 U.S. 561, 73 S.Ct. 391, 97 L.Ed. 549 (1952); U.S. v. Pennsylvania, 452 F.2d 557 (3rd Cir.1971); Aldisert, C.J., p. 563; State v. Grant, 560 S.W.2d 384 (Mo. App. 1977); Graham v. State, 547 S.W.2d 531 (Tenn. 1977); and State v. Montgomery, 291 N.C. 91, 229 S.E.2d 572 (N.C. 1976). As aptly stated in Oregon v. Acosta, 41 Or. App. 257, 597 P.2d 1282, 1284 (1979): It is apparent that an indigent's statutorily enacted right to defense expenses is not absolute, but is conditioned upon a showing that such expenses are needed to prepare and present an adequate defense. (Citations omitted) Neither the statute nor the constitutional guarantees of effective assistance of counsel and of equal protection require that an investigator or expert be furnished at public expense upon demand. (Citations omitted) There is no single test for determining whether the services of an investigator or an expert are necessary; that decision will depend on the facts and circumstances of the particular case and must be committed to the sound discretion of the court to which the request for expenses is directed. (Citations omitted) [Emphasis added.] 476 So.2d at 1202-1203. This Court weighs on a case by case basis whether the denial of expert assistance for an accused is prejudicial to the assurance of a fair trial and will grant relief only where the accused demonstrates that the trial court's abuse of discretion is so egregious as to deny him due process and where his trial was thereby rendered fundamentally unfair. Id. at 1203. This Court held that in the first trial, the lower court did not abuse its discretion in declining to provide the requested experts because the record reflected that defense counsel had full access to the State's experts, together with their reports, counsel were able to subject to them to rigid cross-examination and there was nothing to indicate that the State experts were biased or incompetent. These reasons apply equally to the second trial. It was this Court's opinion that Johnson was not prejudiced in Johnson I for failure of the lower court to provide him funds with which to obtain his own experts, nor did he suffer any disadvantage thereby. Id. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when a defendant has made a preliminary showing that his sanity at the time of the offense is likely to be a significant factor at trial, the Constitution requires that a State provide access to a psychiatrist's assistance on this issue, if the defendant cannot otherwise afford one. Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 74, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 1091, 84 L.Ed.2d 53, 60 (1985). The Court examined the private interests that would be affected by the action of the State, which it found to be almost uniquely compelling. The Court next examined the governmental interests that would be affected if the safeguard is to be provided, which it found was not substantial. Finally, the Court examined the probable value of the additional or substitute procedural safeguards that are sought, and the risk of an erroneous deprivation of the affected interest if those safeguards are not provided. Id. at 77-79, 105 S.Ct. at 1093-1094, 84 L.Ed.2d at 62-64. The Court concluded that without the assistance of a psychiatrist to conduct a professional examination on issues relevant to the defense, the risk of an inaccurate resolution of sanity issues is extremely high. Id. at 82, 105 S.Ct. at 1095, 84 L.Ed.2d at 65. Shortly after the Ake decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stated the following in a footnote: Petitioner also raises a challenge to his conviction, arguing that there was constitutional infirmity in the trial court's refusal to appoint various experts and investigators to assist him. Mississippi law provides a mechanism for state appointment of expert assistance, and in this case the State did provide expert psychiatric assistance to Caldwell at state expense. But petitioner also requested appointment of a criminal investigator, a fingerprint expert, and a ballistics expert, and those requests were denied. The State Supreme Court affirmed the denials because the requests were accompanied by no showing as to their reasonableness. For example, the defendant's request for a ballistics expert included little more than the general statement that the requested expert `would be of great necessarius witness.' 443 So.2d 806, 812 (1983). Given that petitioner offered little more than undeveloped assertions that the requested assistance would be beneficial, we find no deprivation of due process in the trial judge's decision. Cf. Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 82-83, 84 L.Ed.2d 53, 105 S.Ct. 1087 [1095-1096] (1985) (discussing showing that would entitle defendant to psychiatric assistance as matter of federal constitutional law). We therefore have no need to determine as a matter of federal constitutional law what if any showing would have entitled a defendant to assistance of the type here sought. Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 323 n. 1, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 2637 n. 1, 86 L.Ed.2d 231, 236 n. 1 (1985). In 1987, the Eleventh Circuit stated that the implication in Caldwell that the Government's refusal to provide non-psychiatric expert assistance could, in a given case, deny a defendant a fair trial is questionable in light of the Court's subsequent statement that it had no need to determine as a matter of federal constitutional law what, if any, showing would entitle a defendant to assistance of the type sought. Moore v. Kemp, 809 F.2d 702, 711 (11th Cir.1987). One recent case involving the refusal to grant funds to employ a fingerprint expert distinguished Ake, stating that the rationale in that case was that if those in need of psychiatric assistance were deprived of such assistance, there would be an extremely high risk of inaccuracy in resolving the issues of sanity. Woodard v. State, 743 P.2d 662, 664 (Okla.Cr.App. 1987). The Court believed that the same level of risk was not present in the area of fingerprint evidence. In Woodard, the fingerprint expert related to the jury how he correlated the latent fingerprints taken from the automobile to the appellant, after which defense counsel attacked these conclusions with extensive cross-examination, after which the jury determined there was justification for this conclusion. Therefore, the Court could not say that the appellant was denied the basic tools of his defense. Id. In a very recent case, the Supreme Court of North Carolina held that the question of whether the defendant should have been provided with the assistance of a fingerprint expert was controlled by Ake. The Court stated that indigent defendants are required to meet the flexible requirement of a threshold showing of specific need for the expert sought. The Court reversed the conviction for the failure to provide funds for a fingerprint expert, relying upon the fact that the victim could not identify her assailant, so that the determination of guilt or innocence hinged largely on the unrebutted testimony of the State's fingerprint expert, and the fact that the fingerprint expert would enable defense counsel to access more accurately the one item of hard evidence implicating him in the crimes charged. State v. Moore, 321 N.C. 327, 364 S.E.2d 648, 656-58 (1988). However, a concurrence stated that the Court's holding would require appointment of fingerprint experts in almost all cases in which fingerprint evidence is introduced by the State and certainly in those cases where the State relies upon fingerprint evidence and there were no eyewitnesses to the crime charged. The concurrence also stated that the type of expertise involved in analyzing fingerprints is a far cry from that employed by psychiatrists since the taking and analysis is largely a mechanical function, readily demonstrable to a jury, whereas the issue of sanity is one about which experts can and frequently disagree so that it was easy in Ake for the U.S. Supreme Court to conclude that the defendant could not properly prepare his defense without the assistance of an expert in the field of psychiatry. Id. (concurring opinion). The principles outlined in Johnson I were affirmed in Burt v. State, 493 So.2d 1325, 1326-27 (Miss. 1986). Note too that certain requirements of specificity in the motion are present, such as the name and specific cost for the expert and the purpose and value of such an individual to the defense. Bullock v. State, 391 So.2d 601, 607 (Miss. 1980); Tubbs v. State, 402 So.2d 830, 836 (Miss. 1981). See Davis v. State, 374 So.2d 1293, 1297 (Miss. 1979); Dufour v. State, 453 So.2d 337, 340-341 (Miss. 1984). This Court has considered as a factor whether the State's case depends almost entirely upon the identification of the defendant's fingerprints, that is, whether the determination of guilt or innocence of the defendant is dependent on the State's expert witness. Tubbs, 402 So.2d at 836; Davis, 374 So.2d at 1297. Although recognizing the important implications both to the State and the defendant on this issue, this Court holds that there was not such a high risk of inaccuracy in fingerprint evidence as to determine in this case that the defendant was denied a fundamentally fair trial. This is not to say, however, that given another set of facts and circumstances that an accused should not be afforded at State expense an independent expert witness. Finding no error requiring reversal, this Court affirms the conviction of Leon Johnson for murder and sentence to life imprisonment. AFFIRMED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., HAWKINS, P.J., and ANDERSON, GRIFFIN and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur. DAN M. LEE, P.J., and ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ., concur in parts I, II, III, and IV and dissent as to part V.