Court Opinion

ID: 9884200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:47:28.823451+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:36.529391
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SCHAEFER, dissenting in part: I am unable to agree with the opinion of the court insofar as it holds that upon the new trial the witness Rosemary Dawson may not testify that on the evening of the shooting Lopez told her .that it was he who had shot Wolfman. The opinion holds that while she may testify that Lopez had the silver plated revolver that evening, and that he gave it to her to carry for him, she may not testify that he told her that he fired the fatal shot. The rule of evidence applied by the majority has been sharply criticized. (See, 5 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed. 1940) sec. 1477; McCormick, Evidence (Cleary ed. 1972) secs. 278-280; Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 804(b)(4) and Committee Note; 39 Fordham L. Rev. 136; 62 Nw. U.L. Rev. 934.) Dissatisfaction with that rule, which admits into evidence a hearsay declaration that is against the declarant’s financial interest but excludes one that is against his penal interest, has finally culminated in Chambers v. Mississippi (1973), 410 U.S. 284, 35 L. Ed. 2d 297, 93 S. Ct. 1038. There the exclusion of the testimony of witnesses that a third person had admitted the commission of the crime for which the defendant was being tried was an important factor in the Supreme Court’s determination that the defendant had been deprived of due process of law. Like Chambers, the present case is a close one. The first trial of the defendant resulted in a hung jury. The evidence would not support an inference that Lopez and the defendant had formed an intention to kill Wolfman when they intervened in his street brawl with the customer who had been evicted from his restaurant. The determination as to who had fired the fatal shot was thus more important here than it would be in a case that involved concerted action between two defendants. The admission of Lopez was made a few hours after the crime was committed. It is unquestionably incriminatory. There is corroboration in the testimony of the witness Young that the gun that he took away from the defendant immediately after the shooting was the black .32-caliber automatic, and in the proffered testimony of the witness Dawson that Lopez had the silver plated revolver and had asked her to carry it in her purse for him, and that when he left her he said, “You won’t be seeing me for a while.” The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dutton v. Evans (1970), 400 U.S. 74, 27 L. Ed. 2d 213, 91 S. Ct. 210, has minimized the significance of the unavilability of Lopez. (See also, Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 804.) These circumstances persuade me that the witness Dawson should be permitted to testify at the new trial that Lopez admitted to her that he shot Wolfman. MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH joins in this dissent.