Opinion ID: 2088920
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statements to Lay Persons

Text: Appellant contends six statements [8] made to lay persons constituted oral admissions which warranted standard instruction No. 2.46. Since appellant did not specifically request the instruction for these admissions or object to their introduction into evidence, [9] our standard of review would normally be whether the failure to give the instruction was plain error. Super.Ct. Crim.R. 30 and R. 52(b); Watts v. United States, 362 A.2d 706, 708 (D.C.1976) (en banc); see Jones v. United States, 477 A.2d 231, 242-43 (D.C.1984); Johnson v. United States, 387 A.2d 1084, 1088-89 (D.C.1978). However, because the trial court cut off counsel's explanation of which admissions he wished to have standard instruction No. 2.46 apply, we apply the same standard of review as we did for appellant's admissions to police officers. Appellant's reliance on Jackson, supra, and Obery, supra, is as unpersuasive here as it was for his admissions to the police. He also relies on Naples v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 123, 344 F.2d 508 (1964), wherein the court noted that if testimony is allowed as an oral adoptive admission, the jury should be cautioned `against trusting over much to the accuracy of such testimony' since there are `great possibilities of error in trusting to recollection-testimony of oral utterances, supposed to have been heard....' Id. at 127, 344 F.2d at 512. Appellant argues that although Naples was concerned with the adoptive admission exception to the hearsay rule, it is clear that the court assumed that similar potential for distortion lies in evidence of express (nonadoptive), oral admissions of a defendant, because the court cited State v. Bemis, 33 Cal.2d 395, 202 P.2d 82 (1949). The Bemis court held that where appellant had alleged that his confession to a police officer was coerced by beatings and physical abuse, the trial court had erred in failing sua sponte to instruct the jury that evidence of an oral admission of the defendant should be viewed with caution. 32 Cal.2d at 396-98, 202 P.2d at 83-84. In these cases, unlike the instant case, voluntariness was an issue. But where there is little if any evidence of involuntariness, there is no basis to conclude that a trial court must, upon request, always give a cautionary instruction to the jury on a defendant's admissions to lay persons. In addition, the stringent standards governing the admissibility of declarations against penal interest, which are required because doubt persists that the zeal of law enforcement agencies to protect the peace may tinge or warp the facts of a confession, Laumer v. United States, 409 A.2d 190, 197 (D.C.1979) (en banc) (citing Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 489, 83 S.Ct. 407, 418, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)), provide no support for appellant. In Laumer, the court referred to the stringent standards in explaining why confessions that are inherently untrustworthy should be rejected, but acknowledged the fundamental doctrine of substantive criminal law that the confessions and admissions of a criminal defendant, assuming that they are voluntary, are admissible as evidence. Id. Indeed, Laumer notes that admissions are highly probative of an accused's guilt because it is unlikely that a rational person would admit to a crime if he did not commit it. Id. The trial court instructed the jury that appellant had a right to be a witness and that his testimony should not be disbelieved merely because he was a defendant, that the jury was not required to accept the statements that appellant had said he was going to kill the victim, and that the statements should be considered only for the purpose of determining whether appellant had the intent to commit the crimes, and not as tending to show appellant's guilt. Based on these instructions and others given by the trial court, see supra Part I-A, we find no error affecting appellant's substantial rights arising from the trial court's failure further to instruct the jury on appellant's admissions to lay persons. The jury is presumed to follow the instructions, and the record does not indicate that it failed to do so. See Sherrod v. United States, 478 A.2d 644, 659 (D.C.1984). The government's evidence against appellant was overwhelming. Three witnesses heard the gunshot and then saw the victim and appellant, who was carrying a shotgun, emerge from her apartment. There was also evidence that appellant had previously threatened to kill and physically injure the victim. See supra note 8. Appellant's nephew testified about appellant's admissions after he shot the victim, and the victim twice named appellant as the person who shot her. [10]