Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Improperly Excluded Evidence: Refusal to Admit the Remainder of the Tape Recording

Text: At the outset of the penalty phase, defendant made a motion to permit the playing of his entire tape-recorded interrogation by police detectives. (See pt. II.D, ante. ) He sought admission of the tapes because they recorded him making exculpatory statements, and reacting with apparent surprise to news of his stepdaughter's murder. The court denied the motion on the ground that the tapes were hearsay. (42) Defendant now contends the tapes were admissible for nonhearsay purposes and, even if hearsay, were sufficiently reliable to permit their admission in a capital trial. Defendant did not raise the issue of admissibility of the tape recordings for nonhearsay purposes at trial. He therefore may not do so on appeal. (See People v. Rogers, supra, 21 Cal.3d 542, 547-548.) As for his contention that the tapes should have been admitted under an exception to the hearsay rule, defendant relies on Green v. Georgia (1979) 442 U.S. 95 [60 L.Ed.2d 738, 99 S.Ct. 2150]. Green held that a defendant's due process rights are violated when hearsay testimony at the penalty phase of a capital trial is excluded, if both of the following conditions are present: (1) the excluded testimony is highly relevant to a critical issue in the punishment phase of the trial, and (2) there are substantial reasons to assume the reliability of the evidence. ( Id. at p. 97 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 741]; see also People v. Harris (1984) 36 Cal.3d 36, 70 [201 Cal. Rptr. 782, 679 P.2d 433].) In Green v. Georgia, supra , the defendant attempted to prove, during the penalty phase of his trial, that he had not been present when the actual murder occurred. He sought to introduce statements by a cellmate of his codefendant, a prosecution witness (at the codefendant's separate trial), who was prepared to testify that the codefendant had said he was the sole murderer. The court found substantial indications of the reliability of the cellmate's testimony: there was significant corroborating evidence, the statement was against his penal interest, [7] and the prosecution itself had relied on the cellmate's testimony during its case. ( Green v. Georgia, supra, 442 U.S. at p. 97 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 741].) In the present case there is no indication that defendant's exculpatory statements to detectives, made shortly after his arrest, were anything but self-serving. On the contrary, given the discredited alibi that appeared on the tapes, introduced during the guilt phase of the trial, there are affirmative reasons to believe the taped statements to be unreliable. As such, we find that the statements do not fall within the Green v. Georgia exception to the hearsay rule, or within any other exception.