Court Opinion

ID: 9645135
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:13:40.814747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:23.720129
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. This appeal comes here basically as a “test” case in which the prosecuting authorities in Kansas City seek to find out if the presentation of oral testimony over closed circuit television where the witness is not present in court is permissible under the confrontation clause of the U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI. Defendant nowhere asserts rights under the Constitution of Missouri 1945, Art. I, See. 18(a), V.A.M.S., and, therefore, the principal opinion does not consider the issues under the Missouri Constitution.
I realize that the principal opinion is narrowly drawn so as to restrict the holding to the confrontation clause of the U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI, and then only to a prosecution for a municipal ordinance violation where the witness utilizing closed circuit television is in the “expert” category and the proceeding is characterized as “civil in nature, although somewhat criminal in respect to some of the prescribed procedure.”
In my opinion, the facts of this case do not portray a sufficiently clear picture of the use of closed circuit television with respect to confrontation and cross-examination rights under the Sixth Amendment for this court to really come to grips with the problem.
Here, there was no serious contention that the substance was not marijuana and defense counsel did not even undertake to cross-examine the expert witness. We do know that there were four people in the room with the witness who were not shown on television, and there was no representative of the defendant there at all. We also know that there can be no handling of exhibits between either counsel and the witness. The “demeanor” of a witness *341comes across differently over television than when the witness is personally present in court. The foregoing are merely some of the defects, as I see it, that are apparent from viewing the television tape.
Under the facts of this case and the manner in which the defendant’s attorney conducted the defense, I question whether there was any prejudice to the defendant from the use of closed circuit television where the testimony was restricted to identifying a substance as marijuana and where the defendant’s attorney made no effort to cross-examine this witness or any other witness as to the identity of the substance.
Nevertheless, the principal opinion will function as an approval of a procedure which, under the facts of this case, is not shown to protect or satisfy the confrontation and cross-examination rights of a defendant under the U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI, and, therefore, I dissent.