Opinion ID: 1175284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: impeachment of potential witnesses

Text: At trial defendant planned on calling two prison inmates to testify on his behalf. The two inmates were both members of the Aryan Brotherhood, an organization that allegedly has a creed requiring its members to commit perjury, if necessary, to protect another member of the organization. Defendant claims the trial court erred in a pretrial ruling that the prosecutor could impeach the witnesses with evidence of their membership in the organization. Defendant claims that because of this ruling defense counsel did not call the two inmates to testify on defendant's behalf. Because the defendant made no offer of proof concerning the substance of the inmates' proposed testimony, we have no way of knowing whether they possessed admissible and relevant evidence. In the absence of an offer of proof, we would not ordinarily consider the issue on appeal. State v. Bay, 150 Ariz. 112, 115, 722 P.2d 280, 283 (1986). However, in view of the nature of this particular case and the sentence imposed, we have decided to consider the merits of the trial court's pretrial ruling concerning the use of impeachment testimony. We believe that the trial court's ruling was correct. Questioning the witnesses about their obligation and belief would have been proper impeachment. As the United States Supreme Court noted in another case involving the Aryan Brotherhood: We hold that the evidence showing Mills' and respondent's membership in the prison gang was sufficiently probative of Mills' possible bias towards respondent to warrant its admission into evidence. Thus it was within the District Court's discretion to admit Ehle's testimony, and the Court of Appeals was wrong in concluding otherwise. United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45, 49, 105 S.Ct. 465, 467, 83 L.Ed.2d 450 (1984). We find no error.