Opinion ID: 3011490
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Attorney General's Subpoena Power

Text: As noted above, the Appellate Division agreed with the defendants' assertion that the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands is not authorized to subpoena evidence after a defendant has been arrested and charged, but the court did not reverse the trial court on that basis. Rather, in reversing the trial court, the Appellate Division stated: Although the Court finds that the government did abuse its power in issuing the subpoena afer Finney's arrest, we do not reach the issue of whether Finney suffered any prejudice as a result, since we reverse on other grounds. Fonseca, 119 F. Supp. 2d at 534 (emphasis added). The discussion of the Attorney General's subpoena power is, therefore, obiter dicta. It is not part of the holding, and not precedential. Inasmuch as we are reversing the Appellate Division's holding regarding the jury instructions, we need not review the Appellate Division's conclusion regarding the limitations on the Attorney General's subpoena power. Furthermore, Blanche did not testify at trial. Accordingly, she has waived any claim she may otherwise have had that her medical records were privileged. See Luce v. United States, 469 U.S. 38, 41 (1984) (finding harm to defendant wholly speculative where defendant chose not to testify to avoid impeachment from his prior convictions); United States v. Moskovits, 86 F.3d 1303, 1305 (3d Cir. 1996) (finding harm speculative where defendant, acting as his own counsel, elected not to testify to avoid conditions imposed by the trial judge on how to conduct his direct examination); United States v. Furst, 886 F.2d 558, 578 (3d Cir. 1989) (finding harm entirely speculative where defendant limited the scope of his direct examination of witnesses to avoid government's possible improper crossexamination of witnesses).