Court Opinion

ID: 9675473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:54:59.788341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:34.846321
License: Public Domain

R. M. Maher, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I agree that defendants suffered no prejudice from the method used to select the jury. I likewise agree that no prejudicial error resulted from the denial of separate trials and from the admission of the defendants’ statements at trial.
Although I am of the opinion that impeachment by high misdemeanors should be permitted, I do not believe that the Supreme Court opinion in People v Renno, 392 Mich 45; 219 NW2d 422 (1974), can be read as authorizing such a rule. Until the Supreme Court holds otherwise, I believe that Renno must be construed to prohibit impeach*225ment by all misdemeanors, People v Bernard Smith, 81 Mich App 561; 266 NW2d 40 (1978), People v Harris, 86 Mich App 301; 272 NW2d 635 (1978). In the case at bar, moreover, the specific offense of which the witness had been convicted was never revealed. I fail to see how this Court can hold the impeachment proper because the offense was a high misdemeanor without knowing the nature of the offense. In view of the overwhelming evidence against defendants, however, I find the error harmless.
I also disagree with the majority’s statement that a police preliminary complaint report is admissible as a business record. I share the skepticism expressed by Justice Coleman in Moncrief v Detroit, 398 Mich 181, 189; 247 NW2d 783 (1976):
"The police report is a writing. It could be admitted into evidence as an exhibit if the proponent can show that it meets the requirements of the business records exception. However, because of the "nature” of police business and the circumstances under which such reports are usually made, the possibility of police reports so qualifying is unlikely.2”
See also Simpson v Burton, 328 Mich 557; 44 NW2d 178 (1950). I do not agree that the preliminary complaint report was properly qualified in this case as a business record under the statute. However, the error was invited by counsel for the same defendant who raises the issue, in that he had earlier in the trial introduced a PCR as a business record. He may not now complain that admission of such reports is improper. See People v Williams, 84 Mich App 226; 269 NW2d 535 (1978).
*226In addition, I am of the opinion that defendants Miller and Davis were subjected to double punishment by being convicted of both felony murder and the underlying felony of armed robbery of the murder victim. I would sua sponte reverse their convictions for the robbery of the deceased, People v Anderson, 62 Mich App 475; 233 NW2d 620 (1975), People v Longuemire, 77 Mich App 17; 257 NW2d 273 (1977), People v Robert G Thompson, 81 Mich App 348; 265 NW2d 632 (1978), lv gtd 402 Mich 938 (1978), People v Wilder, 82 Mich App 358; 266 NW2d 847 (1978). See also Harris v Oklahoma, 433 US 682; 97 S Ct 2912; 53 L Ed 2d 1054 (1977).
Finally, I would remand for a hearing on the issue of juror misconduct. According to statements made by counsel for defendant Ewing and by Ewing’s father, two jurors had been overheard by Ewing’s mother discussing the case. At the time the alleged discussion took place, all the evidence had been presented and closing arguments had been completed. However, the jury had not yet received the court’s instructions on the law. Defendant Ewing’s counsel apparently was not immediately informed of the incident. After the jury had been instructed on the law, but before they began their deliberations, counsel for defendant Ewing informed the court that he had just learned that two jurors had been overheard by his client’s mother discussing the case in the hall during the lunch break. Mrs. Ewing thereupon collapsed and was taken to the hospital, after informing her husband of the overheard conversation. Upon being informed of these allegations, the court ordered Mr. Ewing sworn and an inquiry held into the possible misconduct. Mr. Ewing testified that he did not hear the alleged conversation, and was *227prevented from testifying regarding his wife’s statements about what she heard by the prosecutor’s hearsay objection. Counsel then asked the court to adjourn until the following morning, in the hope that Mrs. Ewing would be sufficiently recovered to testify to what she overheard. The court refused, and ordered the jury to begin deliberations.
The Supreme Court in People v Hunter, 370 Mich 262; 121 NW2d 442 (1963), held that it was reversible error for the trial court to instruct the jury that they could discuss the testimony during the trial, so long as they did not arrive at a verdict. The Court quoted at length from Winebrenner v United States, 147 F2d 322, 327-328 (CA 8, 1945), in which the United States Court of Appeals discussed the reasons jurors are not to discuss a case before it is submitted to them upon proper instructions:
"[J]urors are unschooled and inexperienced as to their duties in a criminal case, and they are not instructed as to those duties until all the evidence has been received, except as the court may in his admonition give them advice on their functions and how they are to be performed, and particularly as to how they should demean themselves; hence, the importance of this admonition. Without admonition their course is uncharted. Thus, it is not until the final submission of the case that the jurors are told that a defendant is under the law presumed to be innocent and not guilty and that that presumption attends him throughout the trial, so that it is incumbent upon the Government to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. These instructions are deemed of vital importance as fixing the standards to be followed by the jury in determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant. If, however, the jurors may discuss the case among themselves, either in groups of less than the entire jury, or with the entire jury, they are giving premature consid*228eration to the evidence. By due process of law is meant 'a law which hears before it condemns; which proceeds upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after trial.’ The jury should not discuss the case among themselves because, first, they have not heard all of the evidence; second, they have not heard the instructions of the court as to how this evidence is to be considered by them, and neither have they heard the arguments of counsel.”
In People v Blondia, 69 Mich App 554; 245 NW2d 130 (1976), this Court reversed for an instruction similar to that in Hunter, supra, on the assumption that jurors who had been invited to discuss the testimony during trial in fact did so. Accord, People v Monroe, 85 Mich App 110; 270 NW2d 655 (1978). In the case at bar the prejudice is even more obvious, for the jurors allegedly did discuss the case during trial, despite repeated instructions by the trial court not to do so.
I am of the opinion that the trial court should have continued the matter until the following day in order to facilitate a full investigation into the allegations of juror misconduct. Had Mrs. Ewing continued unavailable, the jurors themselves could have been questioned about the incident, People v Bergin, 16 Mich App 443; 168 NW2d 459 (1969), People v Markham, 19 Mich App 616; 173 NW2d 307 (1969). I would remand to the trial court for the purpose of taking Mrs. Ewing’s testimony on the matter. If she is unavailable, the jurors should be summoned and questioned. If after a full investigation the trial court finds no misconduct, defendants’ convictions may be considered affirmed by this Court. If the trial court finds prejudicial misconduct, defendants are entitled to a new trial.

"2 See Palmer v Hoffman, 318 US 109; 63 S Ct 477; 87 L Ed 645 (1943); McCormick, Evidence (2d ed), § 308.”