Opinion ID: 564323
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Opportunity and similar motive?

Text: 58 This is not the first time that the grand jury testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis has been the subject of dispute in this court. In the commission case, one of the appellants also argued that the failure to turn over the grand jury testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis violated both Brady and Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(1). The government there had taken the position that it would produce the grand jury minutes only if and when Bruno was called as a witness. 868 F.2d at 542 n. 7. We held that its position does not violate Brady . Id. See also Brief for Government at 188-90, United States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir.1989). We further held that since the appellant had not called the declarants as witnesses to permit them to refuse to testify at the trial, he had failed to show that either declarant was unavailable. Salerno, 868 F.2d at 542 & n. 8. 59 Here, in contrast, the defendants called both men to the stand out of the jury's presence and, when asked a series of questions, both men invoked the fifth amendment in response to each question. Thus, the defendants filled in the gap that had defeated the appellant in the commission case. But to keep the trial jury from hearing the grand jury testimony of these two witnesses, the government raised still another objection: that it did not have a similar motive to develop the witnesses' testimony before the grand jury as required under rule 804(b)(1). Since all other requirements for admission of the testimony were satisfied, this similar-motive contention becomes the focus of the dispute on this appeal. 60 The government vigorously contends that they lacked a similar motive to develop the testimony in front of the grand jury, since they believed that the witnesses had committed perjury therein. By ex parte affidavits filed under seal, the government maintained that they have little or no incentive to conduct a thorough cross-examination of Grand Jury witnesses who appear to be falsifying their testimony to assist Grand Jury targets or other witnesses. The government argued, and the district court agreed, that the government's motive in developing testimony in front of a grand jury is so different from the motive at trial that the rule 804(b)(1) hearsay exception does not apply. Accordingly, the district court refused the defendants' offer of the grand jury testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis. 61 While we agree that the government may have had no motive before the grand jury to impeach the allegedly false testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis, we do not think that is sufficient to exclude the evidence at trial. The similar motive requirement of rule 804(b)(1) protects the party to whom the witness is unavailable in order to accord that party some degree of adversarial fairness, thereby assuring that the earlier treatment of the witness is the rough equivalent of what the party against whom the statement is offered would do at trial if the witness were available to be examined by that party. When the declarant is unavailable to the party against whom the testimony is being offered, the similar motive requirement not only ensures that the right of cross-examination is preserved, but also ensures that the party against whom the testimony is offered has been afforded a fair chance to seek the truth, and is not blindsided at trial by the hearsay testimony. See United States v. Young Bros., Inc., 728 F.2d 682, 691 (5th Cir.) (This concern is not present in this case because it was the party offering the testimony, the appellant, who had not had the opportunity to cross-examine.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 881, 105 S.Ct. 246, 83 L.Ed.2d 184 (1984); United States v. Vigoa, 656 F.Supp. at 1505 (By conditioning admission upon proof that the party against whose interest the testimony is offered was adequately represented during the development of the testimony, Rule 804(b)(1) incorporates considerations of adversarial fairness into the evidentiary analysis.). 62 Had Bruno and DeMatteis been, for example, ill or dead at the time of trial (and therefore, under rule 804(a)(4), unavailable to either side), the district court would have properly inquired whether the government had a similar motive to examine them in the grand jury before allowing their testimony before the grand jury to be admitted under rule 804(b)(1), because neither the government nor the defendant would be able to examine the witness at trial. But since these witnesses were available to the government at trial through a grant of immunity, the government's motive in examining the witnesses at the grand jury was irrelevant. When the reason for the requirement evaporates, so does the requirement. See 2A N. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction Sec. 45.12, at 54-55 (4th ed. 1984). 63 We are cognizant of the reliability concerns that have led courts to exclude grand jury testimony from use by the prosecution at trial. See, e.g., United States v. Thevis, 665 F.2d 616, 629 (5th Cir. Unit B), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 825, 103 S.Ct. 57, 74 L.Ed.2d 61 (1982): 64 Grand jury testimony, although given under oath, is not subjected to the vigorous truth testing of cross-examination, as is prior testimony. Grand jury testimony, moreover, is often given under a grant of immunity which might encourage a witness to embellish his story. 65 See also McKethan v. United States, 439 U.S. 936, 938, 99 S.Ct. 333, 334, 58 L.Ed.2d 333 (1978) (Stewart, J., dissenting from the denial of certiorari) (noting, inter alia, that no one is present to give the defendant's version of the story); United States v. West, 574 F.2d 1131, 1138-39 (4th Cir.1978) (Widener, J., dissenting) (confrontation clause concerns where grand jury testimony introduced against defendant). 66 But when the defendant wishes to introduce the grand jury testimony that the government used to obtain his indictment, those concerns about reliability and accuracy are absent. Every factor present in the grand jury--the ex parte nature of the proceeding, the leading questions by the government, the absence of the defendant, the tendency of a witness to favor the government because of the grant of immunity, the absence of confrontation--is adverse to the interest of the defendants, not the government. Yet it is the government here which seeks to avail itself of the protections of Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(1). Since the witnesses were only unilaterally unavailable and could have been subjected to cross-examination by the government, we will not countenance the exclusion of their grand jury testimony on the ground of purported fairness to the government. 67 It is indeed troubling to us that after identifying Bruno and DeMatteis as exculpatory witnesses under Brady, the government then sought to make it impossible for the defendants to obtain the exculpating testimony. In resisting the admission of the grand jury transcripts, the government was not true to the letter or spirit of Brady, where the Supreme Court said: 68 We now hold that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. 69 Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97. To say that the government satisfied its obligation under Brady by informing the defendants of the existence of favorable evidence, while simultaneously ensuring that the defendants could neither obtain nor use the evidence, would be nothing more than a semantic somersault. However, we rest our decision on our interpretation and application of Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(1), and not Brady v. Maryland, keeping in mind the time-honored rule that we should not reach constitutional issues unless absolutely necessary. 70 In so holding, we note that the government is in no way required to grant use immunity to a witness called by the defense; it is simply left with a series of choices. Immunity remains pre-eminently a function of the Executive Branch. United States v. Turkish, 623 F.2d 769, 776 (2d Cir.1980) (citing Ullman v. United States, 350 U.S. 422, 76 S.Ct. 497, 100 L.Ed. 511 (1956)), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1077, 101 S.Ct. 856, 66 L.Ed.2d 800 (1981); United States v. Lang, 589 F.2d 92, 96 (2d Cir.1978) (collecting cases). See also 18 U.S.C. Sec. 6003 (immunity in court and grand jury proceedings). 71 The government is no stranger to such choices; in fact, it made a similar choice when Bruno and DeMatteis were originally called before the grand jury. In front of the grand jury, the government felt it had to make a smaller sacrifice (by granting Bruno and DeMatteis use immunity) in order to achieve the greater goal of indicting the defendants. To make a similar choice at trial is not too great a burden to cast on the government. 72 The government, of course, could have granted initially defendants' request to immunize Bruno and DeMatteis, heard their live testimony, and thereby prevented admission of the grand jury transcripts, for then the witnesses would have been available to both sides. However, once the government made Bruno and DeMatteis unavailable to the defense by refusing to immunize them at trial, the grand jury transcript should have been admitted as prior testimony of an unavailable declarant under rule 804(b)(1). At that point, the government would have been faced with another choice: it could have then immunized the witnesses and called them to testify about their grand jury testimony. Had it done so, Fed.R.Evid. 806 would have permitted the government to cross-examine these witnesses even though it would have been the government who had called them. Or, it could have chosen not to immunize the witnesses, and thereby waived its right to any further live examination. Had it chosen this course, rule 806 still would have permitted impeachment of Bruno and DeMatteis as hearsay declarants, as if they were actually testifying, and the rule exempts the government from the usual condition that a witness's prior inconsistent statement may not be used without first confronting the witness with the statement. In other words, after the grand jury testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis was admitted, the government would have a full and fair opportunity to discredit that testimony. 73 In short, the district court erred in excluding the exculpatory grand jury testimony of Bruno and DeMatteis. That testimony was former testimony given by a declarant unavailable to the defendants, and the government's argument that it lacked the opportunity and similar motive to develop the testimony in front of the grand jury is irrelevant, because the declarants were not similarly unavailable to the government at trial.