Opinion ID: 1168287
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: refusal to allow bingham to call victim as witness at hearing on new trial.

Text: Bingham asserts that he should have been allowed to call the victim as a witness at the hearing on his motion for new trial. We disagree. Bingham's motion for new trial was based, in part, on an allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel. At the hearing on the motion Bingham attempted to call the victim as a witness. The prosecution objected. Bingham's attorney argued that the purpose in calling the victim to testify was to determine whether there was effective assistance of counsel. He also contended that the failure to allow the victim to testify deprived Bingham of the right of confrontation. He said that the victim may be the one source that could clear Mr. Bingham of wrongdoing if she were permitted to testify, or even if she was permitted to testify today to the point of what she recalled back then. In refusing to allow Bingham to call the victim to testify, the trial court noted that Bingham's trial attorney had been given an opportunity to interview the victim in the presence of the prosecutor. The trial court also pointed out that the state had not called the victim as a witness at trial and that the testimony of Dr. Smith, the victim's mother, and the police officer as to what the victim told them about the incident had been admitted under exceptions to the hearsay rule. The trial court noted that these statements had sufficient indicia of reliability to be admitted into evidence at trial. If the trial court had allowed Bingham to call the victim as a witness at the hearing on the motion for new trial and if the victim had recanted the statements she made to Dr. Smith, her mother and the police officer, that would not have proved that Bingham's trial attorney denied Bingham effective assistance by not calling the victim as a witness at trial. Bingham's trial attorney had attempted unsuccessfully to interview the victim before trial. It was a tactical decision whether to call the victim as a witness at trial, in the face of the testimony of three witnesses who testified that the victim had incriminated Bingham. We wonder what claim Bingham would be making now, if his trial counsel had called the victim, and if she had told the jury the same story she told Dr. Smith, her mother and the police officer.