Opinion ID: 2273504
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The Concurrence

Text: The concurrence contends that the trial court abused its discretion in concluding that the Bryant evidence would be admissible at a second trial under the hearsay exception for statements against penal interest because, according to the concurrence, the trial court reasonably could not have concluded that Bryant's statements are, in fact, against his penal interest. For the reasons that follow, I disagree. The conclusion of the concurrence that Bryant's statements are not against his penal interest is predicated on three separate but related claims. First, the concurrence breaks down the Bryant evidence into discrete statements, analyzes each such statement separately, and then concludes that, when so viewed, none of the various statements is sufficiently disserving so as to expose Bryant to criminal liability. The concurrence next suggests that, in this state, the hearsay exception for statements against penal interest applies only to those statements that directly implicate the declarant in a crime, and, because, in the view of the concurrence, Bryant's statements do not satisfy that requirement, they do not fall within that hearsay exception. Finally, the concurrence maintains that, even if the trial court reasonably concluded that some of Bryant's statements were sufficiently against his penal interest, those particular statements do not implicate Hasbrouck and Tinsley and, therefore, do not advance the petitioner's third party culpability defense. The concurrence further contends, along these same lines, that, because the statements that Bryant attributes to Hasbrouck and Tinsley are self-serving, that is, they tend to exonerate Bryant, those statements are not admissible at all. Although the concurrence concedes that a declarant's self-serving statements may be admitted when those statements are inextricably linked with the declarant's self-inculpatory statements, it asserts that that is not the case here. None of these arguments is persuasive. The concurrence's analysis of the trial court's ruling concerning the admissibility of the Bryant evidence begins with an examination of each disserving statement in isolation, divorced from the rest of Bryant's narrative. Upon viewing Bryant's remarks in this manner, the concurrence asserts, first, that Bryant's statement that he was in Belle Haven on the night of the murder is not against his penal interest ... because (1) his presence, alone, does not so far tend to subject him to criminal liability for the victim's murder, especially in light of the fact that Bryant states, and the record reflects, that many people were in Belle Haven that night, and (2) Bryant specifically states that he took a train back to Manhattan ... from ... Greenwich ... before the victim was murdered. (Emphasis in original.) The concurrence also contends that Bryant's acknowledgment that he possessed one of the Skakels' golf clubs on the night of the murder is not incriminating because Bryant never stated that he held the specific club that was used in the murder, and because he later claimed, in the same interview, not even to know how the victim was murdered. The concurrence reasons, therefore, that, at the time of his statement [to Colucci], Bryant would not have known that handling one of the Skakels' golf clubs could be against his penal interest. The concurrence further contends that, even if Bryant knew how the victim had been killed, his statements concerning the golf clubs are not against his penal interest because he also stated that [e]verybody in Belle Haven touched those clubs, thus implicating himself in the murder to no greater degree than anyone else in Belle Haven. Lastly, the concurrence asserts that the record does not support the trial court's determination that Bryant discussed assaulting the victim with Hasbrouck and Tinsley because that determination suggests that Bryant made disserving statements during those discussions when, in fact, only Hasbrouck and Tinsley expressed an intent to abduct and to assault the victim sexually. In isolating each of Bryant's statements in this manner and considering them out of the context in which they actually were spoken, the concurrence employs an analytical model that is incompatible with this court's mandate that the determination of whether a statement is sufficiently disserving to be considered against penal interest shall be made by examining the entire statement in context. See State v. Bryant, supra, 202 Conn. at 696-97, 523 A.2d 451. In contrast to the trial court's analysis, the approach that the concurrence uses represents precisely the kind of narrow and inflexible approach that this court expressly has rejected for purposes of determining whether a statement is against penal interest. See id., at 695, 523 A.2d 451. In fact, because all language is contextual, it is impossible to discern the fundamental import of virtually any statement by viewing it in a linguistic or factual vacuum. This is what the concurrence has done, however, in parsing Bryant's remarks and reviewing them separately from one another and from the totality of the surrounding circumstances. This approach leads the concurrence to the wrong result, for as the United States Supreme Court has explained in construing rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, [46]  whether a statement is self-inculpatory or not can... be determined [only] by viewing it in context. Even statements that are on their face neutral may actually be against the declarant's interest. `I hid the gun in Joe's apartment' may not be a confession of a crime; but if it is likely to help the police find the murder weapon, then it is certainly self-inculpatory. `Sam and I went to Joe's house' might be against the declarant's interest if a reasonable person in the declarant's shoes would realize that being linked to Joe and Sam would implicate the declarant in Joe and Sam's conspiracy. And other statements that give the police significant details about the crime may also, depending on the situation, be against the declarant's interest. The question ... is always whether the statement was sufficiently against the declarant's penal interest `that a reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true,' and this question can ... be answered [only] in light of all the surrounding circumstances.  (Emphasis added.) Williamson v. United States, supra, 512 U.S. at 603-604, 114 S.Ct. 2431. An examination of the entirety of Bryant's statements reveals that Bryant places himself at the scene of the crime, in the company of the victim, shortly before the murder, holding the possible murder weapon, [47] and discussing an attack on the victim with the two personsboth of whom Bryant had introduced and brought to Belle Havenwho, shortly after the victim's murder, boasted about having committed the crime. [48] As this court previously has stated, the exception for declarations against penal interest encompasses disserving statements [made] by a declarant that would have probative value in a trial against the declarant. (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Bryant, supra, 202 Conn. at 695, 523 A.2d 451. Thus, contrary to the assertion of the concurrence, in this state, the hearsay exception for declarations against penal interest includes not only confessions or direct admissions of guilt, but [also] other remarks [that] would tend to incriminate the declarant [if] he or she [was] the individual charged with the crime. [49] (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. Bryant's statements most certainly meet that standard, for if he were being tried for the victim's murder, the statements would be highly relevant and, indeed, highly prejudicial to his case. Far from representing an irrational or arbitrary exercise of discretion, as the concurrence claims, the trial court's determination that the Bryant evidence consisted of trustworthy declarations against penal interest represents a perfectly reasonable application of that hearsay exception to the factual scenario presented by this case. [50] Certainly, a reasonable person in Bryant's position would not have made the statements that he did without believing them to be true. Indeed, by acknowledging his close involvement with Hasbrouck and Tinsley on the day and evening of the murder and for some time thereafter, Bryant knew that he was likely to become a suspect in that murder, the prosecution of which, as Bryant also knew, was not subject to any limitation period. As this court has observed, a statement has significance as one against penal interest only to the extent that the declarant is aware that the statement is self-inculpatory. Id., at 696, 523 A.2d 451 (it is not the fact that the declaration is against penal interest but the awareness of that fact by the declarant which gives the statement significance [internal quotation marks omitted]). Applying that principle to the present case, I conclude that both Bryant and his mother made it perfectly clear that Bryant's refusal to come forward for more than two decades prior to the petitioner's arrest, and his extreme reluctance to do so even after the petitioner's arrest, stemmed from an overriding concern that to do so would result in Bryant's becoming a suspect in the victim's murder. [51] Finally, the concurrence contends that, to the extent that any of Bryant's statements may be deemed to be self-inculpatory, [52] only those statements, and not Bryant's entire narrativeincluding the portion of that narrative that inculpates Hasbrouck and Tinsleyare admissible under the hearsay exception for declarations against penal interest. Although the concurrence concedes that Bryant's statements implicating Hasbrouck and Tinsley would be admissible if they are inextricably linked to Bryant's self-inculpatory statements, the concurrence asserts that those two sets of statements are not so intertwined. The concurrence's contention is belied by this court's well established case law. In State v. Bryant, supra, 202 Conn. at 676, 523 A.2d 451, this court concluded that, when the disserving parts of a statement are intertwined with self-serving parts, it is more prudential to admit the entire statement and let the trier of fact assess its evidentiary quality in the complete context. Id., at 696-97, 523 A.2d 451. We also explained, however, that [t]he problem of statements that are both disserving and self-serving to a declarant has divided commentators and some courts. Id., at 696 n. 18, 523 A.2d 451. After acknowledging that [o]ne view ... would admit the entire statement, whereas a second, somewhat different view suggests admitting only the disserving portion of the declaration and excluding the self serving part [when] the two parts can be severed; id., at 696-97 n. 18, 523 A.2d 451; we expressed our agreement with the first view, pursuant to which the entire statement is admitted. Id. The fact that this has been the law of this state at least since our decision in Bryant is reflected in the relevant commentary to the Connecticut Code of Evidence, which provides: When a narrative contains both disserving statements and collateral, self serving or neutral statements, the Connecticut rule admits the entire narrative, letting the trier of fact assess its evidentiary quality in the complete context. [53] (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Conn.Code Evid. § 8-6(4), commentary. Other courts have adopted the same approach. See, e.g., People v. Newton, 966 P.2d 563, 578-79 (Colo.1998); State v. Sonthikoummane, 145 N.H. 316, 321-22, 769 A.2d 330 (2000). Notwithstanding the clarity of our law, the concurrence asserts that only Bryant's self-inculpatory statements, and not his purportedly self-serving statements implicating Hasbrouck and Tinsley in the victim's murder, are admissible. As the foregoing discussion demonstrates, this assertion fails in light of Bryant and the commentary to the Code of Evidence. [54] Even if the concurrence were correct, however, that the portions of Bryant's narrative that inculpate Hasbrouck and Tinsley are admissible only to the extent that they cannot be severed from Bryant's disserving statements, Bryant's narrative satisfies that standard. The concurrence contends that, if any of Bryant's statements may be viewed as inculpatory, it is only those statements indicating that, on the night of the murder, (1) Bryant was in Belle Haven, (2) Bryant picked up one of the Skakels' golf clubs, `swung it,' and `[slung] it back to where the bag ... was,' and (3) that, at one point, Bryant and the victim were among the ten to fifteen teenagers socializing in the meadow [behind the Skakels' residence]. The concurrence further maintains that only these statements properly could have been deemed to be admissible by the trial court, and not Bryant's self-serving statements implicating Hasbrouck and Tinsley in the victim's murder. Bryant's disserving statements, though severable from a linguistic standpoint, are so intertwined with Bryant's statements about Hasbrouck and Tinsley that the self-inculpatory nature of the former cannot be appreciated unless those statements are considered in the context of the latter. In other words, severing the two sets of statements would make it impossible for a fact finder to understand why Bryant's self-inculpatory statements are, in fact, self-inculpatory. Thus, as we expressly observed in Bryant, [t]here are cases ... [in which] allowing such latitude to contextual statements may give real meaning to the declaration that is disserving. [55] State v. Bryant, supra, 202 Conn. at 697, 523 A.2d 451. The present case is clearly one of them. For all the foregoing reasons, neither the state nor the concurrence can demonstrate that the trial court abused its broad discretion in concluding that the Bryant evidence would be admissible at a new trial under the declaration against penal interest exception to the hearsay rule. Indeed, far from representing an abuse of discretion, the trial court's determination was the product of a reasoned analysis predicated on a perfectly proper application of settled principles to the facts presented. Indeed, because the Bryant evidence bears persuasive assurances of trustworthiness and is critical to the petitioner's defense, excluding the evidence would implicate the petitioner's constitutional right to present a defense. See, e.g., Chambers v. Mississippi, supra, 410 U.S. at 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038; see also People v. Oxley, 64 A.D.3d 1078, 1084, 883 N.Y.S.2d 385 (2009) ([S]upported by the relevant [nonhearsay] evidence, the hearsay testimony proffered by [the] defendant bore persuasive assurances of trustworthiness and was critical to his defense.... In these circumstances, [in which] constitutional rights directly affecting the ascertainment of guilt are implicated, the hearsay rule may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice.... Indeed ... [when] a statement is exculpatory as to [a] defendant, a less exacting standard [than that applicable to an inculpatory statement proffered by the government] applies in determining whether statements against penal interest are admissible, and [when] the statement forms a critical part of the defense, due process concerns may tip the scales in favor of admission.... [Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.]). As I previously noted, however, even if it could be established that the trial court had abused its discretion in concluding that the Bryant statements would be admissible as trustworthy declarations against penal interest, for the reasons that follow, the court reasonably could have concluded that those statements would be admissible under the residual exception to the hearsay rule. I therefore turn to that hearsay exception.