Opinion ID: 1994761
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interrogation of Dennis Hilliard

Text: Nelson objected contemporaneously to the trial justice's questioning of Mr. Hilliard with respect to his opinion as to Nelson's relative blood alcohol level at 3:30 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. Nelson argues that the trial justice improperly asked the witness a prosecution-oriented question because the question tended to reveal to the jury the trial justice's partiality and belief that Nelson had a higher blood alcohol content at 3:30 a.m. than she did an hour later. The state counters that the questioning does not entitle Nelson to a new trial because the witness could not, and did not, actually provide an opinion in response, and therefore the verdict was unaffected. In our opinion, the trial justice's interrogation of Mr. Hilliard was error and also requires us to vacate the judgments of conviction. The trial justice's questioning of Mr. Hilliard was in the same vein as his questioning of Dr. Kettelle in that it strayed from this Court's long-standing holdings that judicial questioning of witnesses must be confined to clarification of justifiably confusing matters for the jury. See Figueras, 644 A.2d at 293 (citing Giordano, 440 A.2d at 745). We emphasize that trial justices should not engage in the examination of witnesses of the kind that the trial justice conducted here. This questioning roamed beyond the boundaries of appropriate clarifying judicial interrogation because the question subtly rephrased a question that the prosecution had already asked and the witness had already answered. Therefore, the jury heard for a second time that Mr. Hilliard could not form an opinion about the defendant's blood alcohol level at 3:30 a.m. compared with the established level at 4:25 a.m. without knowing when the defendant last consumed alcohol. We fail to see how this question could be characterized as a clarification of a justifiably confusing matter when the trial justice already knew exactly how the witness would respond. Clarification does not include simply editing counsel's previous questions to how the judge felt they should have been asked. See Giordano, 440 A.2d at 745-46 (holding that trial justice's request of a witness to explain an answer to a question asked on cross-examination constituted a clarification of the evidence). In our opinion the trial justice erred in his questioning of Mr. Hilliard, and the defendant was prejudiced as a result of the jury hearing the trial justice essentially cross-examine a witness, regardless of Mr. Hilliard's inability to give an opinion in response to the questioning.