Court Opinion

ID: 9530020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:56:23.810908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:58.673550
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in that part of the majority opinion which holds that W.R.Cr.P. 48 does not apply to retrials, but join in Chief Justice Lehman’s separate concurring opinion that Newport’s speedy trial claim must be analyzed under constitutional speedy trial guarantees; and I agree with his analysis of that point. I also concur in that part of the majority opinion which treats the child witness testimony issue and holds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it allowed A.L. to testify.
I respectfully dissent, however, to that part of the majority opinion which holds that the trial court did not commit plain error when it allowed into evidence Sarah Weber’s testimony in answer to the prosecutor’s question:
Q. After [your son] told you, after you actually talked to [the victim], what was your and [the victim’s mother’s] reaction to [the victim] at the time?
(Emphasis supplied).
Weber’s answer was:
A. We believed her. She was scared enough — she was scared enough that she was very, very frightened of Donald [Newport] hurting her. And that was our main question was, why didn’t you tell us when this happened and she firmly believe[d] he was going to hurt her.
(Emphasis supplied).
For one thing, the prosecutor’s question, as phrased, obviously seeks to elicit irrelevant evidence: the “reaction” of Weber and the victim’s mother to an out-of-court statement of the victim. Their “reaction” has no probative value as evidence in the prosecution’s case-in-chief. I find it suspicious that an experienced prosecutor in a case involving such a serious charge would ask such an irrelevant question; one gets an uneasy feeling that such an irrelevant question might be a signal that the witness give an answer that expresses an opinion of the victim’s credibility. “Reaction” is a broad term; I believe it is reasonably foreseeable that the listener’s “reaction” to a speaker’s “statement” would encompass the listener’s opinion of the credibility of the speaker and her statement.
For another thing, assuming that the prosecutor’s question was not a signal for the witness’s credibility-opinion-testimony, and the plain error standard, not the per se error standard, applies, in my judgment Weber’s answer, “we believed her,” etc., is a clear and unequivocal violation of a clear and unequivocal rule of law. See, e.g., McCone v. State, 866 P.2d 740, 751 (Wyo.1993) (“witness credibility ‘is the exclusive province of the jury;’ and neither expert nor lay witnesses should be permitted to testify that another witness is or is not telling the truth.”); Zabel v. State, 765 P.2d 357, 362 (Wyo.1988) (“A clear and unequivocal rule of law exists concerning *1221this type of testimony: The credibility of witnesses is the exclusive province of the jury and may not be the subject of expert testimony.”); Lessard v. State, 719 P.2d 227, 233 (Wyo.1986); and Smith v. State, 564 P.2d 1194, 1200 (Wyo.1977).
Finally, my confidence in the jury verdict is undermined because this was a close case in which no physical evidence existed; the only eyewitnesses were the accused and the victim; the key issue for the jury was the victim’s credibility; and the opinions (“reactions”) of Sarah Weber and the victim’s mother would reasonably have substantial influence on the jury’s determination of that key issue. Both Weber and the victim’s mother lived with the victim; they knew her better than anyone else. Their “reaction” to her story would undoubtedly impress the jury.
I would reverse and remand for a new trial.