Court Opinion

ID: 9526349
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:15:59.461031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:29.686866
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE MILLER, concurring: I concur in the court’s judgment and join much of the majority opinion. I write separately, however, to address further two questions raised in the opinion: the resolution of the defendant’s claim under Batson v. Kentucky (1986), 476 U.S. 79, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69, 106 S. Ct. 1712, and the introduction of testimony relating the opinions of several nontestifying experts. During jury selection, defense counsel objected on Batson grounds to the State’s exercise of a peremptory challenge against a Hispanic member of the venire. The trial judge declined to consider the merits of the defendant’s claim, apparently on the ground that the non-Hispanic defendant did not have standing to raise the issue. As the majority opinion recognizes, the trial judge’s reason for refusing to consider the defendant’s Batson claim is invalid. Later case law confirms that an accused may raise a Batson claim even though he does not share the ethnic identification of the excluded venireman. Powers v. Ohio (1991), 499 U.S. 400, 113 L. Ed. 2d 411, 111 S. Ct. 1364 (white defendant may raise Batson claim regarding exclusion of black members of venire); People v. Andrews (1992), 146 Ill. 2d 413, 425. Beyond the remarks quoted in the majority opinion, however, defense counsel made no attempt, in the face of the trial judge’s adverse ruling, to provide any further evidentiary support for the Batson claim. Although doubts arising from the incompleteness of the record do not automatically foreclose our review of this issue (see Andrews, 146 Ill. 2d at 434-35 (defendant’s failure to establish number of blacks in venire not fatal to Batson claim)), uncertainties in the record may be resolved against the defendant and in favor of the State. In the present case, surname alone provides one basis for determining the ethnic ground at issue — the excluded venireman was Hispanic — and a review of the record shows that the prospective juror in question was the only Hispanic-surnamed member of the venire. There is no “pattern,” as such, to discern in the improper exclusion of the solitary representative of a particular group. To show that the prosecutor acted in a discriminatory manner, a defendant in these circumstances will necessarily rely on comparisons between the excluded juror and jurors of other ethnic groups retained by the prosecution. Whether the offense involved persons of different ethnic groups or otherwise had racial or ethnic overtones may also be significant, as the majority suggests. Apart from the excluded juror’s ethnic identification, however, the present defendant has offered nothing in support of his contention that the prosecutor acted improperly. On this record, then, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the defendant has failed to establish a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination. I do not endorse, however, the majority’s unnecessary suggestions that the trial judge implicitly found the defendant’s proof inadequate to establish a prima facie case and that what we are actually reviewing here is that unstated finding. (152 Ill. 2d at 163.) As I have noted, the trial judge declined to consider the Batson claim, apparently on the ground that the defendant lacked standing to challenge the Hispanic venireman’s exclusion; nothing in the record indicates that the judge also analyzed this question on its merits. The defendant also contends that the State improperly presented evidence that three experts who did not testify at trial had concluded that the defendant was sane. I agree with the majority’s resolution of this question, but I believe that the rules permitting such inquiries are broader than the majority suggests. During the defendant’s case in chief, the prosecutor cross-examined the defendant’s expert, Dr. Gaspero, about the opinions of three nontestifying experts — Dr. Reifman, Dr. Waldman, and Dr. Wassalau — who had previously examined the defendant and found him sane. Later, in rebuttal, the prosecution also questioned its own expert witness, Dr. Cavanaugh, concerning these nontestifying experts’ opinions. Finally, during closing argument, the prosecution mentioned the opinions not only of the two testifying experts, Dr. Cavanaugh and Dr. Gaspero, but of the three nontestifying experts as well. The defendant contends that the State’s uses of the nontestifying experts’ opinions were all erroneous. Considering first the direct examination of the State’s rebuttal witness, Dr. Cavanaugh, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the prosecutor properly questioned the witness concerning data, conclusions, and opinions produced by nontestifying experts who had previously examined the defendant. Federal Rules of Evidence 703 and 705, as adopted by this court in Wilson v. Clark (1981), 84 Ill. 2d 186, permit an expert witness to testify regarding information not in evidence if the information is of the type reasonably relied on by experts in that particular field. Contrary to the defendant’s contention here, the range of information that may be presented under Rule 703 includes not only raw data generated or compiled by others but also opinions and conclusions of others. (M. Graham, Cleary & Graham’s Handbook of Illinois Evidence §703.1, at 522 (5th ed. 1990).) There is no question in this case that the opinions of the three nontestifying experts are of the type reasonably relied on by psychiatrists and psychologists, and thus there was no error in the State’s direct examination of its own expert, Dr. Cavanaugh. See People v. Ward (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 559. The State’s cross-examination of the defendant’s expert witness, Dr. Gaspero, was also proper. Discussing the examination and cross-examination of expert witnesses under Rules 703 and 705, Professor Graham writes: “A difficult situation may arise when the cross-examiner attempts to add facts, rather than subtract or alter those facts upon which the expert actually relied, to test the expert’s qualifications, knowledge, fairness, or basis of opinion. If the fact, data, or opinion which the cross-examiner seeks to add to the expert’s basis has been or will be otherwise introduced in evidence, or is contained in a learned treatise, cross-examination is proper. Similarly, if the additional fact, data, or opinion has been or will be reasonably relied upon under Rule 703 by an expert called as a witness by the cross-examiner during his case in chief, cross-examination is proper.” Graham, Expert Witness Testimony and the Federal Rules of Evidence: Insuring Adequate Assurance of Trustworthiness, 1986 U. Ill. L. Rev. 43, 70. (See also M. Graham, Handbook of Federal Evidence §705.3, at 684 n.4 (3d ed. 1991).) Indeed, cross-examination may be proper even when the additional fact or opinion is not introduced into evidence and is not relied upon by another expert witness at trial. In determining the appropriate scope of cross-examination in that case, the trial judge must consider whether the probative value of the challenged inquiry outweighs the risk of unfair prejudice to the opposing party. 1986 U. Ill. L. Rev. at 70. In the present case, the State’s cross-examination of Dr. Gaspero did not go beyond the information later elicited during the rebuttal testimony of Dr. Cavanaugh, the prosecution’s expert. Accordingly, there was no error in the prosecution’s questioning of Dr. Gaspero about the views of the nontestifying experts. The prosecution went beyond these limits and made substantive use of some of the out-of-court opinions in closing argument, however. At several points during argument, in urging the jury to reject the defendant’s insanity defense, the prosecution noted that the non-testifying experts had found the defendant sane. These comments were erroneous, for facts and opinions of nontestifying experts presented through Rule 703 testimony are not substantive evidence. (M. Graham, Cleary & Graham’s Handbook of Illinois Evidence §703.1, at 521, 523 (5th ed. 1990).) The remarks were isolated, however, and I do not believe they could have affected the jury’s determination of the sanity issue. For the reasons stated, I concur in the judgment of the court.