Opinion ID: 1060459
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sequestration of Defense Expert Witness

Text: The defendant contends that the trial court committed reversible error and violated his rights to due process and confrontation by refusing to exempt the defendant's expert witness, a pathologist, from the rule of witness sequestration. The defendant specifically argues that the presence of his expert witness in the courtroom was essential for the purpose of responding to and rebutting the testimony of the Shelby County Medical Examiner. The State responds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion and that, in any event, the defendant has failed to demonstrate how he was prejudiced by the trial court's ruling. The defendant relies in part upon Tenn. R. Evid. 615, which provides that [a]t the request of a party the court shall order witnesses, including rebuttal witnesses, excluded at trial or other adjudicatory hearing. The rule also provides, however, that it does not authorize the exclusion of a person whose presence is shown by a party to be essential to the presentation of the party's cause. Tenn. R. Evid. 615. The comments to the rule suggest that an essential witness may be an expert witness a lawyer needs to help the lawyer understand opposing testimony. See Tenn. R. Evid. 615 (advisory commission comments). The purpose of the rule, simply put, is to prevent a witness from changing or altering his or her testimony based on testimony heard or facts learned from other testifying witnesses. See State v. Harris, 839 S.W.2d 54, 68 (Tenn.1992). As the defendant points out, we recently said that Rule 615 is not applicable in a proceeding to determine whether a defendant is competent to be executed. Coe v. State, 17 S.W.3d 193, 222 (Tenn.2000). In ruling that mental health experts were permitted to remain in the courtroom despite the general rule of witness sequestration, we focused on the unique nature of such a competency proceeding: Allowing the mental health experts to remain in the courtroom during the presentation of the proof is entirely consistent with the purpose of competency proceedings which is to accurately ascertain the prisoner's mental state.... Also, the dangers Rule 615 is intended to prevent do not arise in a proceeding to determine competency to be executed. In light of the fact that both the State and the prisoner have access to the reports of the experts prior to the hearing, there is little or no risk that one of the expert witnesses will change his or her testimony or adopt facts testified to by other witnesses. Id. at 222-23 (emphasis added). Although Coe involved a mental competency proceeding, we believe that the dangers Rule 615 is intended to prevent generally do not arise with regard to expert witnesses in any proceeding. In fact, the rules of evidence provide that an expert witness may testify and base an opinion on evidence or facts made known to the expert at or before a hearing and the facts need not be admissible at trial. See Tenn. R. Evid. 703. Moreover, an expert witness often may need to hear the substance of the testimony of other witnesses in order to formulate an opinion or respond to the opinions of other expert witnesses. In short, allowing an expert witness to remain in the courtroom as an essential person generally does not create the risk that the expert will alter or change factual testimony based on what is heard in the courtroom. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court erred by refusing to allow the defendant's expert witness to remain in the courtroom without considering the purpose and application of Rule 615. We must therefore determine whether the error affected the outcome of the proceedings to the defendant's prejudice. We observe first that the defendant and his expert pathologist had the benefit of the medical examiner's testimony from the initial trial. The defendant and his expert also had the benefit of the autopsy report and the findings with respect to the victim's injury and death. Moreover, there is no indication that the medical examiner's testimony was so detailed or complex as to be beyond the ability of defense counsel to comprehend and prepare a defense. Finally, the defendant did not call the expert to testify at the motion for new trial hearing or otherwise attempt to make an offer of proof as to how the evidence or cross-examination of the medical examiner would have differed had his expert witness been allowed to remain in the courtroom. Accordingly, for all of these reasons, we conclude that the trial court's refusal to allow the defendant's expert witness to remain in the courtroom did not affect the outcome to the prejudice of the defendant.