Court Opinion

ID: 9686306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:40:59.681077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:17.515200
License: Public Domain

Weaver, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the result of the lead opinion and join in the constitutional analysis. I write separately to dissent from part iv and concur, for different reasons, in part v.
*223I
In part IV, the lead opinion asserts that evidentiary error occurred. The lead opinion would hold that it was error in each case for the prosecutor to call witnesses intimately connected to the crimes at issue, knowing that those witnesses would assert their Fifth Amendment rights, validly or invalidly.
I disagree with this because I am convinced that error occurs only when the privilege asserted has been ruled to be valid by the trial court. The seminal case in this area is People v Giacalone, 399 Mich 642; 250 NW2d 492 (1977). There the defendant alleged that the prosecutor acted improperly in calling a witness, knowing that the witness would claim the privilege against self-incrimination. Citing the American Bar Association standards, this Court held that “[a] lawyer may not knowingly offer inadmissible evidence or call a witness knowing that he will claim a valid privilege not to testify.” Id. at 645.
The evidentiary rule established by Giacalone is grounded in professional misconduct. If the prosecutor has come to learn that the witness plans to claim a privilege, the proper procedure would seem to be to ask the court to rule on the validity of the privilege. The court should conduct the hearing outside the jury’s presence in order to avoid jury taint. If there is a valid privilege, the prosecutor could not call the witness unless nonprivileged information could be and was elicited, thereby giving purpose to the witness’ appearance other than creation of the unwanted inference that the witness’ testimony would undercut the defendant’s claim of innocence. If the privilege is found invalid by the trial court, the prosecution has every right to put the witness on the stand, expecting *224the witness to comply with the obligation to testify. The trial judge should limit examination to that necessary to limit the witness’ unavailability, and, if requested, issue a jury instruction that the jury is not to infer anything against the defendant from the witness’ failure to testify.
The lead opinion also states that the validity of the privilege as determined by the trial court is not absolutely controlling in determining whether the prosecutor acted in good faith. I reject the implication of the lead opinion that the prosecutor cannot rely on the trial court’s ruling regarding the validity of the privilege asserted. The prosecutor has no higher authority available at the time, and this Court should not require the prosecutor to develop a precognitive sense of whether the appellate courts will disagree with the trial court’s ruling.
The lead opinion disregards the fact that the evidentiary error in question is grounded in professional misconduct, and says that “the validity of the privilege is not necessarily controlling in this evidentiary error analysis.” Ante at 197. In so saying, the lead opinion relies on the idea that “[i]f the concern is the prejudice to the defendant, then why focus on the validity of the witness’ constitutional rights?” Relying on the prejudice to the defendant, however, confuses whether the error was harmless with whether error existed.
In Giacalone, this Court found there was error because the prosecutor acted improperly by calling a witness, knowing that the witness had a valid privilege that would be asserted. Absent knowledge of a valid privilege, however, there is no unprofessional *225conduct on the part of the prosecutor, and hence no error.
In the instant cases, it is clear that neither witness was asserting a valid privilege. In Gearns, a hearing was held outside the presence of the jury before the witness was called to the stand. At that time, the trial judge held that the witness’ claim of privilege was not valid. In Thomas, the trial judge questioned the witness outside the presence of the jury, before the witness took the stand, and determined that the witness had no valid privilege to refuse to testify. Thus, I would find that in neither case was there evidentiary error.
n
The finding that there was no evidentiary error renders the discussion of harmless error unnecessary. However, I briefly address that issue because I disagree with the standard of review utilized by the lead opinion.
As I stated in People v Mateo, 453 Mich 203; 551 NW2d 891 (1996), I believe that the proper standard for preserved, nonconstitutional error is set out in MCL 769.26; MSA 28.1096. The defendant should have the burden of showing why the judgment should be overturned. There is a presumption that the error is harmless, and the judgment shall not be overturned “unless in the opinion of the court, after an examination of the entire cause, it shall affirmatively appear that the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice.” Id.
Since I believe there was no error, I concur with the lead opinion in finding that what it finds to be error is harmless.
*226Taylor, J., concurred with Weaver, J.