Court Opinion

ID: 9559552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:31:08.51927+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:10:21.981248
License: Public Domain

BOOCHEVER, Chief Justice,
concurring.
While I concur with the results in this case, I do so on one issue for reasons different from those stated by the majority.
I cannot agree with the majority’s application of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), or with its conclusion that the joint undertaking exception to the hearsay rule automatically satisfies the right to confront witnesses. Furthermore, I see no need to reach that issue in this case.
During the course of the felony, Amidon made statements denying any knowledge of the money and indicating that the money had been returned. These statements were introduced against Menard in a joint trial in which Amidon did not testify and was not subject to cross-examination. Relying on the case of Kay v. United States, 421 F.2d 1007, 1010 (9th Cir. 1970), the majority seems to indicate that Menard’s rights to confrontation1 are automatically satisfied because Amidon’s statements fall within the recognized exception to the hearsay rule as statements of a codefendant made in furtherance of a joint undertaking.
A Ninth Circuit case decided after Kay holds that even conceding sufficient evidence to satisfy the foundational requirements of the joint undertaking exception, statements still might be excluded because their admission denies the constitutional rights to confront and cross-examine the accuser. United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d 730 (9th Cir. 1975). The court stated:
The fact that evidence is admissible under the co-conspirator exception does not automatically demonstrate compliance with the Confrontation Clause. United States v. Baxter, 492 F.2d 150, 177 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 940, 94 S.Ct. 1945, 40 L.Ed.2d 292 (1974).
The Snow decision explains that the test is whether:
under the circumstances, the unavailability of the declarant for cross-examination deprived the jury of a satisfactory basis for evaluating the truth of the extrajudicial declarations.
Snow, supra at 734.
In this case, I can concur because under the standard established in Snow, Menard was not denied her rights of confrontation. It is clear that Amidon’s statements were not being introduced to prove the truth of matters asserted in the statements. To the contrary, everyone recognized that Ami-don’s statements were false and, in fact, that is why the state introduced them. Confronting Amidon as to those statements would have minimal value since Menard had no need to prove the statements were false. Menard presumably could have cross-examined Amidon at trial as to whether or not the statements were actually said, but the same effect could probably be obtained by cross-examining the witnesses who testified to hearing the statements. Under these circumstances, it is my opinion that the unavailability of the declarant for cross-examination did not “deprive[d] the jury of a satisfactory basis for evaluating the truth of the extrajudicial declarations.” Snow, Id.
While the above analysis leads me to concur with the majority opinion in this case, I believe there are circumstances when the joint undertaking exception to the hearsay rule might not automatically resolve a defendant’s rights to confront witnesses and *1265cross-examined2 Since we need not decide whether or not to follow the rationale of Snow in this case, I think the question remains open.
We have described the right to cross-examination to be “. . . as beyond any doubt the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.”3 I would caution against unnecessarily adopting a broad rule which, under a different fact situation, could conflict with a defendant’s fundamental rights to confrontation.

. Art. I, § 11 of Alaska’s Constitution and the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution guarantee a defendant the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him.

. One example would involve a situation in which it was alleged that A and B had jointly engaged in a bank robbery. During the robbery, robber A implicated robber B by stating that B, who was not present at the bank, had planned the entire operation. If this statement is introduced at trial through the testimony of C, who had overheard it, B might have a constitutional right under Bruton, supra, to confront and cross-examine robber A. Unlike Menard, robber B might have an interest in attacking the truth of the hearsay statement. The mandates of Bruton should not be avoided automatically simply because a statement was made during the commission of a joint undertaking.

. Evans v. State, 550 P.2d 830, 836 (Alaska 1976).