Opinion ID: 1862228
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: law calling barnes as a witness for purpose of impeachment

Text: As noted, during the course of the trial, Barnes was called as a witness for the State, and over defense objection, testimony as to pretrial statements and conduct elicited from him as a predicate to having it contradicted in succeeding order by Susan Barnes, McKenzie and Wright. Wilkins complains this was error. The State had a right to call Barnes as a witness, and to ask him any questions it chose relevant to this murder. This does not necessarily mean, however, that the State had the right to ask him about any contradictory pretrial statement he made and upon his denial to offer these pretrial statements in evidence, all as part of its case in chief. Although Wilkins made no complaint on appeal as to Susan Barnes's testimony of statements Barnes made to her, because some question might be raised on retrial, we hold such testimony was not hearsay and was competent evidence under MRE 801(d)(2)(E): [A] statement by a co-conspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy. In driving to the Coldwater exit and dumping and burning the sack in the dumpster, Barnes was acting in furtherance of a conspiracy with Wilkins to destroy evidence of Wilkins' guilt of murder. Any statements he made to Susan during this time were competent evidence as part of the State's case in chief. Ponthieux v. State, 532 So.2d 1239, 1243 (Miss. 1988); Williamson v. State, 512 So.2d 868, 879 (Miss. 1987); Mitchell v. State, 495 So.2d 5, 11 (Miss. 1986). MRE 801(d)(2)(E) places the statements to Susan in a different category than those of McKenzie and Wright. Neither does Wilkins complain on appeal of the extensive testimony of McKenzie as to statements made to him by Barnes when they were both in the Panola County jail. We therefore do not address the competency of this evidence. Miss.S.Ct.R. 28(a)(1)(3); Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832, 838 (Miss. 1983); Prueitt v. State, 261 So.2d 119, 125 (Miss. 1972). Wilkins does complain of the State's calling Barnes as a witness, asking him whether Wilkins had told him he had killed Garner, and if he had taken bloody clothes to the dumpster, and upon his denial that this had occurred, asking him if he had not made contrary statements to Wright, and upon his denial that he had made such statements, calling Wright as a witness and permitting him to testify that Barnes indeed had told him Wilkins admitted killing Garner, and that he (Barnes) had taken bloody clothes to the waste disposal dumpster at Coldwater. Was this testimony by Wright competent evidence? We hold that it was not. In order to explain our conclusion, it is necessary to examine the historical basis for our holding and the confusion which has resulted from the United States Congress's adoption of the Federal Rules of Evidence, subsequently adopted by this Court as the Mississippi Rules of Evidence, and in particular, Rule 607.
The factfinder, whether it be jury or judge, or both of them, has two objectives in evaluating the testimony of any witness: 1. How much does the witness really know of the events he relates as facts; and 2. Is he accurate and truthful in his relation of the events? Factfinders want evidence that is reliable, trustworthy. The purpose of a trial is to furnish the factfinder the best opportunity, the best basis possible to reach these objectives. These objectives and this purpose of a trial never change, but are always the same. The lawyer's role in this enterprise varies, however. With the run-of-the-mill witness, questioning by the attorney who calls him seeks to demonstrate that the witness does indeed have first-hand knowledge of what he relates and that he is truthful and accurate. The role of the adversary is to show, if possible, that one or both these objectives has not been satisfied. Yet it often happens that while some of the facts the witness observed are favorable, others are not. The lawyer therefore knows that by placing this witness in the witness chair, the factfinder is going to hear testimony that does not help his client's case. Quite naturally, the lawyer attempts to minimize the unfavorable, frequently by attempts to nudge his witness away from the unfavorable testimony. Courts have not permitted a party to call a disinterested witness, and after eliciting favorable testimony from him, attempt to cross-examine him as to the testimony that is unfavorable. Moffett v. State, 456 So.2d 714, 718 (Miss. 1984); Gardner v. State, 368 So.2d 245, 249 (Miss. 1979); Manning v. State, 188 Miss. 393, 195 So. 319 (1940). Courts have called this the voucher rule. Moffett, 456 So.2d at 718. It is something in the nature of an estoppel to place a totally disinterested witness on the stand and ask the factfinder to believe that which is favorable to your case, yet reject that which is unfavorable. A different rule prevails where a party, in order to prove his case, must call the adverse party or a clearly hostile witness to the stand. In such instance, courts allow leading questions to be addressed to such witnesses. Miss. Code Ann. § 13-1-53, repealed Ch. 573, § 141 Laws 1991; MRE Rule 611(c). Finally, there is the witness who unexpectedly on the witness stand becomes hostile to the party calling him, or who relates a story completely different from his pretrial statements. In such instances the lawyer, caught by surprise, is permitted to ask leading questions. Moffett, 456 So.2d at 718. Courts have had to struggle not only with the manner in which a witness may be questioned by the party calling him, but also the weight which the factfinder is authorized to give to a pretrial contradictory statement at odds with the witness's trial testimony. May the pretrial out-of-court statement be considered as substantive evidence of the fact it relates? And, if it cannot be considered as substantive evidence, how can a court be sure the jury did not in fact so consider it? If Wilkins told Barnes that he killed Garner, this was an admission and would have been competent evidence for Barnes as a witness to relate. It was admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule, or indeed as we have held in Yawn v. State, 220 Miss. 767, 71 So.2d 779, 780 (1954), was not hearsay but direct evidence. However, it has never been the rule that voluntary admissions of a defendant himself made either in or out of court are hearsay. They are admissions against interest. Yawn, 220 Miss. at 771, 71 So.2d at 780. And obviously, if Barnes had testified that he did transport a bag of bloody clothes to a dumpster and set it afire, this was not hearsay but direct evidence of facts of which Barnes had personal knowledge. Wright's testimony as to what Barnes told him was hearsay, however. It was not admissible under our pre-rules decisions in the absence of showing that the State had been surprised by Barnes's testimony at trial. Then, and only then would the State have been permitted to offer such statements to Wright solely to impeach Barnes's credibility as a witness, and not as substantive evidence of the facts related in pretrial statements. Moffett, 456 So.2d at 718-19; Allison v. State, 447 So.2d 649, 650 (Miss. 1984); Shelton v. State, 445 So.2d 844, 847 (Miss. 1984); Davis v. State, 431 So.2d 468, 473 (Miss. 1983); Gardner v. State, 368 So.2d 245, 249 (Miss. 1979); Denton v. State, 348 So.2d 1031, 1034 (Miss. 1977); Murphy v. State, 336 So.2d 213, 216-217 (Miss. 1976); Magee v. Magee, 320 So.2d 779, 783 (Miss. 1975); Sims v. State, 313 So.2d 388, 391 (Miss. 1975); Hammons v. State, 291 So.2d 177, 179 (Miss. 1974); Hooks v. State, 197 So.2d 238, 240 (Miss. 1967) (reversible error to admit such testimony in absence of showing surprise); Hall v. State, 250 Miss. 253, 165 So.2d 345, 350 (1964); Manning v. State, 188 Miss. 393, 398, 195 So. 319, 320 (1940); Bove v. State, 185 Miss. 547, 554, 188 So. 557, 558 (1939); State of Mississippi v. Durham, 444 F.2d 152, 156 (5th Cir.1971); Ellis & Williams, Mississippi Evidence § 4-8 (1983). Courts generally made a further restriction upon the introduction of inconsistent pretrial statements, namely: the inconsistent statement had to be about a material, not a collateral matter. Because Barnes would have been competent to testify to these facts as a willing witness, this was a material, not a collateral matter. White v. State, 532 So.2d 1207, 1217 (Miss. 1988); Price v. Simpson, 205 So.2d 642, 643 (Miss. 1968); Jones v. State, 180 Miss. 210, 177 So. 35, 37 (1937); Witt v. State, 159 Miss. 478, 132 So. 338 (1931); Williams v. State, 73 Miss. 820, 19 So. 826 (1896). The reasoning behind the courts' reluctance to permit a party to introduce prior inconsistent statements made by his own witness was the fear that an accused might be convicted upon unsworn pretrial statements. United States v. Morlang, 531 F.2d 183 (4th Cir.1975). Judges have endeavored to minimize this danger by instructing a jury that the unsworn pretrial statements could not be considered as substantive evidence, but only to impeach the credibility of a witness who by his testimony has ambushed the party calling him. It has also been of chronic concern to courts whether a jury would or could divest their minds of the statement proved to have been made by the witness, and not treat it as substantive evidence. As stated in Williams, 73 Miss. at 826, 19 So. at 327: If the jury believed that he made such statement, would it be natural for them to obey the instruction of the court, and restrict their consideration of it to the impeachment of the witness? They might endeavor to do so, and believe they were doing so, and still be involuntarily and unconsciously influenced thereby. See also, Moffett, 456 So.2d at 720. Indeed, permitting a jury to hear such testimony and then instructing it not to consider it except for impeachment has been called by one scholar a pious fraud. Morgan, Hearsay Dangers and the Application of the Hearsay Concept, 62 Harv. L.Rev. 177, 193 (1948). Clearly there was no element of surprise in this case. The State did not claim surprise; Barnes had testified in his own defense in his own trial a week previously, and was cross-examined. While his testimony in his own trial is not in this record, it is inconceivable that he did not then make the same denials as to the statements to Wright and McKenzie that he made in Wilkins' trial. Had he testified in his own trial that he had made such statements to Wright and McKenzie and they were correct, he would have been admitting guilt on the witness stand to being an accessory after the fact, for which he had been indicted. Also, while the State cross-examined Barnes at length about the statements he purportedly had made to Wright and McKenzie, there was a conspicuous absence of any cross-examination as to inconsistent testimony from his own trial. There being no surprise to the State in Barnes's testimony, under all our pre-rules decisions it was not competent to allow Wright's testimony as to the pretrial statements. Having said all this, it should also be noted that we observed in Moffett that the rule is not in favor, 456 So.2d at 718, thus signaling that changes might be made. There have been critics of the rule. [2] As observed by Judge Learned Hand in DiCarlo v. United States, 6 F.2d 364, 368 (2nd Cir.1925): If, from all that the jury see of the witness, they conclude that what he says now is not the truth, but what he said before, they are none the less deciding from what they see and hear of that person and in court. In Employing Inconsistent Statements for Impeachment and as Substantive Evidence: A Critical Review and Proposed Amendments of Federal Rules of Evidence 801(d)(1)(A), 613 and 607, Professor Graham in his seminal article in 75 Michigan Law Review 1565, 1573 (1977) states: In summary, the opponents of the Orthodox Rule argue that, so long as the witness is in court and subject to cross-examination, the hearsay problems are eliminated and prior inconsistent statements of the witness should be substantively admissible. They contend further that substantive admissibility is desirable because the proximity of prior statements to the event in question makes them more trustworthy than in-court testimony and because substantive admissibility protects parties from turncoat witnesses. Finally, they urge that the Orthodox Rule does not accomplish its primary purpose because juries are unable or unwilling to distinguish between statements admitted substantively and those admitted solely as evidence of the witness' credibility.
The critics of the orthodox rule initially prevailed because the rules of evidence recommended by the federal advisory committee and submitted by the United States Supreme Court to Congress for approval would have permitted a party to freely impeach his own witness and use it as substantive evidence. Rules 607 and 801(d)(1)(A) as proposed read: Rule 607. Who May Impeach The credibility of a witness may be attacked by any party, including the party calling him. Rule 801. Definitions The following definitions apply under this article. (d) Statements which are not hearsay. A statement is not hearsay if: (1) Prior statement by witness. The declarant testifies at the trial or hearing and is subject to cross-examination concerning the statement, and the statement is (A) inconsistent with his testimony. [3] After deliberation in both houses of Congress, Rule 607 as proposed was approved. Rule 801(d)(1)(A), however, was amended to read: (d) Statements which are not hearsay A statement is not hearsay if  (1) Prior statement by witness The declarant testifies at the trial or hearing and is subject to cross-examination concerning the statement, and the statement is (A) inconsistent with his testimony, was given under oath subject to the penalty of perjury at a trial, hearing, or other proceeding, or in a deposition. (Emphasis added) The concern of Congress, especially the House committee, was that a prior inconsistent statement would be abused in its use against a criminal defendant, and whether or not the prior statement was indeed made and that subtle influence, coercion, or deception has not impaired its reliability. Graham, 75 Mich.L.Rev. at 1582. Wright & Graham, § 6093 at 497. Therefore, to remove the hearsay objection from a prior inconsistent statement and permit its use as substantive evidence, it was necessary that the prior statement had been given under oath in a testimonial setting. The Congressional intent can be easily ascertained as to pretrial inconsistent statements given under oath in a testimonial setting. This is not hearsay, and if properly introduced under Rule 613 may be considered as substantive evidence by the factfinder. But what about all other pretrial inconsistent statements? Rule 607 must be read in conjunction with Rule 801(d)(1)(A) as enacted by Congress. By changing proposed Rule 801(d)(1)(A) and adopting Rule 607 as proposed, Congress created an ambiguity which legal commentators have struggled with since the adoption of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Pub.L. 93-593, Jan. 2, 1975, 88 Stat. 1929. By amending proposed Rule 801(d)(1)(A) did Congress intend to reduce the sweep of 607? Because Congress did in fact significantly change Rule 801(d)(1)(A) from the proposed rule, the weight of authority among them is that in one way or another, either by interpreting or amending Rule 607 to so read, or by interpreting Rule 403 to require it, the pre-rules requirement of surprise and damage should be present before an inconsistent statement is competent. [4] Without giving this as the specific reason for their doing so, federal courts in applying Rule 607 have in fact generally refused to permit a party to impeach his own witness in the absence of showing surprise using language such as: We conclude that it was error to allow the government to misuse Gonzalez' testimony as a `subterfuge' to get otherwise inadmissible testimony before the jury. United States v. Crouch, 731 F.2d 621, 624 (9th Cir.1984). Or, as in United States v. Miller, 664 F.2d 94, 97 (5th Cir.1981), where the Court noted: Of course, the prosecutor may not use such a [prior inconsistent] statement under the guise of impeachment for the primary purpose of placing before the jury substantive evidence which is not otherwise admissible. (Brackets added; emphasis added) And, as stated in United States v. Hogan, 763 F.2d 697, 702 (5th Cir.1985): The prosecution, however, may not call a witness it knows to be hostile for the primary purpose of eliciting otherwise inadmissible impeachment testimony, for such a scheme merely serves as a subterfuge to avoid the hearsay rule. Also, United States v. Fay, 668 F.2d 375, 379 (8th Cir.1981); United States v. DeLillo, 620 F.2d 939, 946 (2nd Cir.1980), cert. denied 449 U.S. 835, 101 S.Ct. 107, 66 L.Ed.2d 41 (1980); United States v. Sebetich, 776 F.2d 412, 427-28 (3rd Cir.1985). The trouble with this rationale is first, as perceptively noted in the dissenting opinion in Cooper v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 568 So.2d 687, 700 (Miss. 1990) (Robertson, J., dissenting), it makes admissibility of evidence depend on what is in the attorney's head, a rather difficult undertaking; and second, if there is in fact no surprise, the only possible motive for attempting to impeach one's own witness is to get otherwise inadmissible testimony into evidence. Administering the rules of evidence would be much easier if the Federal courts of appeal had, as the commentators suggested, directly interpreted Rule 607 as requiring surprise before permitting a party to impeach his own witness with an unsworn prior inconsistent statement, rather than reaching the identical result by indirection. [5]
The Mississippi Supreme Court in promulgating the Mississippi Rules of Evidence in September, 1985, adopted Rules 607 and Rule 801(d)(1)(A) identically as written in the Federal Rules. The bench and bar would have been better served had the ambiguity created by reading Federal Rule 607 in conjunction with Federal Rule 801(d)(1)(A) been removed in our rules, either by use of different language or by a comment to the rules. [6] Be that as it may, our decisions since the adoption of the Mississippi Rules of Evidence have followed the rationale of the federal courts, and have not permitted the introduction of prior inconsistent statements in the absence of a showing of surprise. Thus in Cooper v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 568 So.2d at 691, in reversing a case in which prior inconsistent statements to three insurance company representatives were admitted in the circuit court, we held: An extensive and careful reading of the record as a whole ... shows that State Farm, knowing all the while what the responses would be, offered the testimony of Susie Arnett for no other reason than to impeach her denials with the hearsay testimony of McClain, Brown and Lomenick [the insurance company representatives]. As such, the testimony of McClain, Brown and Lomenick was offered under the guise of impeachment for the primary purpose of placing before the jury substantive evidence in its case in chief which was not otherwise admissible as a device to avoid the hearsay rule. The admission of this testimony was error. [Brackets added] And, in Brown v. State, 556 So.2d 338 (Miss. 1990), a case in which the only evidence pointing to the defendant's guilt was a prior inconsistent statement of a State's witness, we reversed and rendered a conviction, after quoting at length Moffett, our pre-rules decision, as major authority therefor, and never bothered to mention the Mississippi Rules of Evidence. We held in Brown that unsworn pretrial inconsistent statements of a witness could never be used as substantive evidence. Harrison v. State, 534 So.2d 175 (Miss. 1988), does hold that Rule 607 permits a party to impeach his own witness, but since it was never argued on appeal in that case that the purpose of the State in introducing prior inconsistent statements was to get otherwise inadmissible evidence before the jury as a subterfuge, we affirmed. To remove any doubt as to the meaning of Rule 607, we hold today that in its application, just as in our pre-rules decisions, before a party will be authorized to introduce for impeachment purposes an unsworn pretrial inconsistent statement of his own witness, it will be necessary that he show surprise or unexpected hostility, and that such statement can never be used as substantive evidence. We also hold that under the unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading of the jury provisions of Rule 403, the circuit judge should consider whether a cautionary instruction to the jury will be sufficient to keep the jury from treating the unsworn pretrial inconsistent statement as substantive evidence, and if not, the statement should not be introduced. [7]
McKenzie had been arrested and jailed on an unnatural intercourse charge. At the time of Wilkins' trial, he had not been convicted, and the record does not show whether he in fact had even been indicted. The State moved for and secured an order in limine preventing defense counsel from cross-examining McKenzie about this charge. Wilkins now claims that the court's refusal to permit him to attack McKenzie's credibility by asking him about this charge was error. In Blanks v. State, 451 So.2d 775, 778 (Miss. 1984), we held that a witness cannot be cross-examined regarding his involvement with crimes for which he has not been convicted, and in Vick v. Cochran, 316 So.2d 242, 251 (Miss. 1977), that a witness cannot be impeached by showing merely that he has been charged with a crime. Also, Barlow v. State, 233 So.2d 829, 832 (Miss. 1970). Even where a witness has been convicted of a crime, under Rule 609(a) of the MRE it is now discretionary with the trial court whether to permit cross-examination as to such conviction for impeachment purposes. Saucier v. State, 562 So.2d 1238, 1245 (Miss. 1990); McInnis v. State, 527 So.2d 84, 88 (Miss. 1988); Johnson v. State, 525 So.2d 809, 811 (Miss. 1988); Peterson v. State, 518 So.2d 632, 636 (Miss. 1987). Defense counsel offered no other purpose for attempting to cross-examine McKenzie than to impeach his credibility, and the court did not err in refusing to permit this line of cross-examination. REVERSED AND REMANDED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., DAN M. LEE, P.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, BANKS and McRAE, JJ., concur. PITTMAN, J., concurs in result only.