Court Opinion

ID: 9791953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:20:56.93391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:39.693311
License: Public Domain

GORDON, Chief Justice,
specially concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur with the result reached by the majority, which affirmed the trial court’s order precluding the in-court identification in this case. However, I write separately because I cannot concur with the majority’s reaffirmation of the holding in Collins II.
In Collins I, a majority of this court held that post-hypnotic testimony is per se inadmissible in a criminal trial, and that any previously hypnotized witness is incompetent to testify. 132 Ariz. at 189-90, 644 P.2d at 1275-76. Two justices dissented. After a reconstitution of the court by the retirement and replacement of one justice, the court in a supplemental opinion (Collins II) modified the original opinion. The new majority in Collins II reaffirmed the principle that hypnotically induced recall testimony is inadmissible, 132 Ariz. at 201, 208, 644 P.2d at 1287, 1294, but held that a witness is competent to testify to matters that he “was able to recall and relate prior to hypnosis,” 132 Ariz. at 209, 644 P.2d at 1295.
I wrote separately in Collins II to dissent from the court’s modification of the original opinion. Because of its “obvious flaws,” I objected to the new rule “giving the witness the right to say on the witness stand what was remembered before being hypnotized.” Collins II, 132 Ariz. at 211, 644 P.2d at 1297. I was especially concerned about the potential violation of a defendant’s constitutional right to an effective cross-examination. Id. at 212, 644 P.2d at 1298. I will spare the readers any further reiteration of the concerns I expressed in Collins II. It suffices to say that the same dangers exist today.
The majority today reaffirms the “bright line rule” Collins II intended to elucidate: “post-hypnotic recall is inadmissible, but pre-hypnotic recall is admissible provided it has been recorded prior to hypnosis.” Majority op. at 510-511, 512, 799 P.2d at 851-852, 853 (citations omitted). I must dissent because the majority has drawn its bright line in the wrong place. I would hold that testimony by a previously hypnotized witness is per se inadmissible, and that such a witness is incompetent to testify concerning any matter that was the subject of a hypnotic session, even a matter demonstrably recalled and related prior to hypnosis.