Opinion ID: 2062895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Prior Inconsistent Statements

Text: Distinct from the photographic array evidence, the witnesses gave signed statements consisting of the questions and answers at their police interviews. The statements identified Nance and Hardy as the perpetrators of criminal acts as part of the witnesses' larger descriptions of what happened on April 3, 1990, i.e., the conversation at Bell's Carry Out, the beating of Carroll, and the shooting of Carroll. These statements were repudiated at trial. [5] A witness's out-of-court statements inconsistent with in-court testimony ordinarily are not treated as substantive evidence but, as hearsay, may be used only to impeach the witness. Smith v. Branscome, 251 Md. 582, 590, 248 A.2d 455 (1968). This Court has expressed reluctance to parse out statements of identification from larger extrajudicial statements containing additional information that does not otherwise fall under an exception to the rule against hearsay. See Mouzone v. State, 294 Md. 692, 702, 452 A.2d 661 (1982). Nevertheless, the witnesses' photographic identifications were so closely related to their statements bearing on identification, and these, in turn, were so tightly intertwined with their statements as a whole, that it is useful to analyze the substantive admissibility of prior inconsistent statements generally. Maryland is one of only a handful of states to adhere to the orthodox rule barring use of prior inconsistent statements as probative evidence. See compilations in 3A Wigmore, Evidence, § 1018 (Chadbourn rev. 1970, 1991 Supp.); and J. Hilliard, Note, Substantive Admissibility of a Non-Party Witness' Prior Inconsistent Statements: Pennsylvania Adopts the Modern View, 32 Vill.L.R. 471, 489-491 (1987). Sixteen states have adopted for criminal proceedings the so-called modern rule, by which the prior inconsistent statement is admissible substantively, provided the declarant is present at trial and subject to cross-examination. See, e.g., State v. Moran, 151 Ariz. 378, 728 P.2d 248, 250 (1986); People v. Strickland, 11 Cal.3d 946, 114 Cal. Rptr. 632, 636-637, 523 P.2d 672, 676-677 (1974); Gardiner v. State, 252 Ga. 422, 314 S.E.2d 202, 203-204 (1984); LaPierre v. State, 108 Nev. 528, 836 P.2d 56, 58 (1992). See compilations in 3A Wigmore, supra, § 1018; and Hilliard, supra, at 491-492. The modern rule is widely supported by the commentators. McCormick asserts that the availability of cross-examining the declarant satisfies the aim of the hearsay rule to exclude untrustworthy evidence: [T]he witness who has told one story aforetime and another today has opened the gates to all the vistas of truth which the common law practice of cross-examination and re-examination was invented to explore. It will go hard, but the two questioners will lay bare the sources of the change of face, in forgetfulness, carelessness, pity, terror or greed, and thus reveal which is the true story and which the false. It is hard to escape the view that evidence of a previous inconsistent statement, when the declarant is on the stand to explain it if he can, has in high degree the safeguards of examined testimony. C. McCormick, The Turncoat Witness: Previous Statements as Substantive Evidence, 25 Tex.L.Rev. 573, 577 (1947). Accord 3A Wigmore, supra, § 1018(b) (because purpose of hearsay rule is satisfied when witness is present and subject to cross-examination, former extrajudicial statement should be granted substantive value). Supporters of the modern rule have long rejected the notion that the trier of fact must observe contemporaneously the declarant's demeanor when making the out-of-court statement. Judge Learned Hand aptly observed that when a jury decides that what a witness says now is not the truth, but what he said before was truthful, they nonetheless are deciding from what they see and hear of that person in court. Di Carlo v. United States, 6 F.2d 364, 368 (2d Cir.1925). Some 30 years later Judge Hand returned to this theme: It is one thing to put in a statement of a person not before the jury: that is indeed hearsay bare and unredeemed. But it is quite a different matter to use them when the witness is before the jury, as part of the evidence derived from him of what is the truth, for it may be highly probative to observe and mark the manner of his denial.... Again and again in all sorts of situations we become satisfied, even without earlier contradiction, not only that a denial is false, but that the truth is the opposite. United States v. Allied Stevedoring Corp., 241 F.2d 925, 933 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 353 U.S. 984, 77 S.Ct. 1282, 1 L.Ed.2d 1143 (1957). Two other reasons support the probative use of prior inconsistent statements. As the earlier statement is always nearer  and often much nearer  to the event in question, the memory is fresher, and the statement is likely to be more complete and more accurate. 2 McCormick on Evidence, § 251, at 119 (4th ed. 1992). Second, the modern rule eliminates the need for a limiting instruction which asks jurors to carry out the difficult task of separating substantive proof from impeachment evidence bearing solely on a witness's credibility. Id. at 120. This distinction has been called a mere verbal ritual and a pious fraud. See, respectively, McCormick, The Turncoat Witness, supra, at 580; E. Morgan, Hearsay Dangers and the Application of the Hearsay Concept, 62 Harv.L.Rev. 177, 193 (1948). Justice Cardozo said of presenting to a jury evidence that is admissible for one purpose but not for another, [d]iscrimination so subtle is a feat beyond the compass of ordinary minds. Shepherd v. United States, 290 U.S. 96, 104, 54 S.Ct. 22, 25, 78 L.Ed. 196 (1933). In the opinion of one author, intuition and good sense indicate that the jury will not merely weigh the credibility of testimony, but will determine which of the witness's two stories is true, thus deciding the substantive issue. McCormick, The Turncoat Witness, supra, at 581. The drafters of the American Law Institute adopted the modern rule permitting probative admission of extrajudicial statements when the declarant was available for cross-examination. Model Code of Evidence Rule 503(b) (1942). The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws did the same. Unif. R.Evid. 63(1) (1953). The Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence of the United States Supreme Court incorporated the modern view in its proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 801. 56 F.R.D. 183, 293 (1972). The Committee reasoned that the missing oath, cross-examination, and chance to observe demeanor when the prior statement was made could all be supplied by the later examination at trial. Id. at 295-296. The Committee agreed with the assessment of the California Law Revision Commission that because it was made nearer in time to the events in question and is less prone to illegitimate external influences, the inconsistent statement is more likely to be true than the testimony of the witness at trial. Id. at 296. [6] There is no need for this Court to embrace the fully modern view of this question now, for there exists another option precisely suiting the facts of the instant case. In five states, a prior inconsistent statement may be used as substantive evidence when that statement was reduced to a writing signed or adopted by the declarant, and the declarant is a witness at trial and subject to cross-examination. This approach is codified by a formal rule in Hawaii [7] and by statute in Illinois, which adds an additional requirement that the statement be based on the declarant's personal knowledge. [8] Two states have established the rule by case law. See Com. v. Lively, 530 Pa. 464, 610 A.2d 7, 10 (1992); State v. Whelan, 200 Conn. 743, 513 A.2d 86, 92, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 994, 107 S.Ct. 597, 93 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986) (with requirement that declarant have personal knowledge of the facts stated). New Jersey has reached its result by the joint operation of a formal rule of evidence and judicial decision. See State v. Mancine, 124 N.J. 232, 590 A.2d 1107, 1115 (1991). In that it offers additional protection to the rights of an accused, this intermediate course is a wise one. We hold that the factual portion [9] of an inconsistent out-of-court statement is sufficiently trustworthy to be offered as substantive evidence of guilt when the statement is based on the declarant's own knowledge of the facts, is reduced to writing and signed or otherwise adopted by him, and he is subject to cross-examination at the trial where the prior statement is introduced. To the extent it is inconsistent with this holding, our opinion in Mouzone v. State, supra, 294 Md. at 701-02, 452 A.2d 661, is overruled. Harris, McCormick, and Brown all were interviewed about events they said they had observed first hand. They provided full, descriptive answers, rather than responses of Yes or No, to the questions asked. The questions were not unduly leading. Detectives committed their questions and the declarants' answers to paper as literally as possible; this technique gave little room for a subjective interpretation of what was said. The witnesses expressly acknowledged the contents of the written statements to be true and accurate, and then signed them. The witnesses were present at trial for cross-examination and thus available to explain, if they could, the inconsistencies between their trial testimony and the prior statements. These factors offered adequate guarantees that the substance of those statements was of probative value.