Opinion ID: 2046867
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Deposition of State's Rebuttal Witness.

Text: The State called Dr. Michael Taylor, a psychiatrist, on rebuttal to testify regarding the defendant's claim, supported by expert testimony, that her low intellectual functioning would have made it difficult for her to plan the murder and difficult for her to make a timely report of the incident to the police. The defendant complains about the court's refusal to allow her to take a discovery deposition of Dr. Taylor. She concedes there is no authority on the issue, but she contends the interests of justice should be sufficient. She bases this argument on Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(2)(a), which provides: Whenever the interests of justice and the special circumstances of a case make necessary the taking of the testimony of a prospective witness not included in subsection 1 [deposition by defendant of witnesses listed on indictment or information] or 3 [deposition by State of witnesses listed by defendant] of this rule, for use at trial, the court may upon motion of a party and notice to the other parties order that the testimony of the witness be taken by deposition and that any designated book, paper, document, record, recording, or other material, not privileged, be produced at the same time and place. For purposes of this subsection, special circumstances shall be deemed to exist and the court shall order that depositions be taken only upon a showing of necessity arising from either of the following: (1) The information sought by way of deposition cannot adequately be obtained by a bill of particulars or voluntary statements. (2) Other just cause necessitating the taking of the deposition. The issue of whether rule 12(2)(a) provides authority for pretrial deposition of a witness was resolved against Tangie's argument in a case decided after the trial in this case. See State v. Weaver, 608 N.W.2d 797, 800-02 (Iowa 2000) (rule 12(2) to be used only to perpetuate testimony for trial, not for discovery). Because rule 12(2) is the only basis on which discovery may be ordered on special circumstance grounds, and that rule is inapplicable here, we reject this argument.