Court Opinion

ID: 9633236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:39:12.270468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:11:28.420719
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Justice
(dissenting).
In two matters I find myself in disagreement with the decision of the majority in the instant case. I concur in the holding as to the other matters, but in the matter of the introduction of the statement of George McDonald and the impeachment of Willie Dixon I must dissent.
In the matter of the impeachment of Willie Dixon the rule followed in Arizona was as set forth in State v. Lane, 69 Ariz. 236, 211 P.2d 821 (1949). I disagree with the majority’s analysis of the Lane case. The author of the majority opinion reads Lane as if the right to impeach one’s own witness, not originally called as a hostile witness, did not require a showing of surprise. The requirement of showing surprise to both cross-examine and impeach is clearly stated in Lane. This Court held in Lane that a person calling a witness would be permitted to show prior inconsistent statements if the party was actually surprised by the tesimony of the witness and such testimony was damaging to the case of the party calling the witness. “If there exists no surprise such evidence.should not be admitted.” 69 Ariz. at 241 and 242, 211 P.2d at 824. For an additional discussion of this subject see Young v. United States, 97 F.2d 200, 117 A.L.R. 316 (1938).
Irrespective of whether the analysis of the Lane decision is correct or not, the majority have apparently abandoned the rule established in the case, and this position becomes clearer in allowing the admission in evidence of the prior statements of George McDonald. In neither the instance of McDonald nor of Dixon was the prosecution surprised at the testimony given on the stand for these witnesses had repudiated their statements or former testimony before being called as a witness in this case. McDonald had given an unsworn statement while he was in custody and faced with a number of felony charges. It is conceded that some seven charges of armed robbery were not filed against McDonald after he gave a statement to the prosecution implicating the defendant. Later McDonald repudiated the statement on several occasions, and the prosecutor was well aware that the witness had repudiated the statement.
Under the rule in Young and Lane and the traditional American rule, the prosecutor would not be able to use McDonald as a witness. As pointed out in Young, the prosecutor could not call the witness knowing that the witness would not testify according to the previous statement, claim surprise, and expect to use the previous statement to impeach the present testimony of the witness. Such an artifice to get hearsay evidence in the record was condemned in Lane.
The majority holds that the position set out in Rule 801 of the proposed Rules of Evidence for United States Courts and Magistrates is now the rule in Arizona. Under this proposed rule not only was the statement of McDonald available for use as impeachment, it was also admissible as substantive evidence. Interestingly enough *150the majority adopts a rule which as yet has not been adopted for the United States Courts, but the constitutionality of the proposed rule for use by State Courts has been approved in California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 26 L.Ed.2d 489 (1970). Chief Justice Burger points out in his concurring opinion that the holding of the Court in Green was that the California statutory rule of evidence was not in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. It must be noted, however, that the Chief Justice also points out a caution which this Court should have accepted:
“Here, California, by statute, recently adopted a rule of evidence that, as Mr. Justice WHITE observes, has long been advocated by leading commentators. Two other States, Kentucky and Wisconsin, have within the past year embraced similar doctrines by judicial decisions. None of these States has yet had sufficient experience with their innovations to determine whether or not the modification is sound, wise, and workable.” (Emphasis supplied.) 90 S.Ct. 1930 at 1941-1942.
Despite such caution this Court has chosen to experiment without any real need being shown.
In People v. Johnson, 68 Cal.2d 646, 68 Cal.Rptr. 599, 441 P.2d 111 (1968), prior to the Green case, the California Supreme Court had repudiated the Green and proposed Federal rule. The California Supreme Court describes the rule as the “academic position.” A reading of the decision in Johnson gives a sound basis why the academic position should not be accepted by this Court.
There are those who argue that the proposed rule is one of necessity; that a party very often has little choice as to its witnesses. The prosecutor and defense must accept the case as it is with the necessity of using as witnesses those who have knowledge of the facts of the case; therefore a party should be free to use a prior out-of-court statement for any purpose. The foregoing is seemingly a logical and reasonable position were it not for the dangers attendant to it, and the case at issue certainly highlights some of the dangers. In order to secure a statement favorable to the position of a party, does the proposed rule aid in securing truth or falsity ? Was McDonald actually telling the truth in his statement concerning the defendant and the dropping of seven felony charges merely an inducement to secure the truth — or was he lying? The rule is available to the defense as well as the prosecution. Does the academic position aid in the quest for truth? My fear is that it provides a tool for the unscrupulous, dishonest, and crafty to obscure the truth. The temptation to get a favorable unsworn statement from a witness at any cost will be tremendous. The object is to get some favorable version on paper, worded, as far as the witness will permit, in the most favorable terms for the party taking the statement. There is no longer any need to get the real version from the witness — anything he’ll sign can be used, and, if he balks, his statement can be used. What was advertised as the cure for the turncoat witness may turn out to be a plague on the rest of our system of evidence.