Court Opinion

ID: 9465283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:41:26.993931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:05.029626
License: Public Domain

RONEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Six witnesses were allowed to testify as to conversations they had with defendant Winkle. Testifying in his own defense, Winkle attempted to testify as to his version of these conversations. The trial court allowed him to testify only as to his own remarks, apparently under the impression that testimony as to what others said in the same conversation was hearsay. As Judge Rubin points out in his opinion, this ruling was wrong.
Judge Rubin, however, would affirm the trial court’s ruling on the ground that the proffer was inadequate, and on the further ground that “in light of what Winkle proposed to say, so far as the record permits some kind of inference, [an analysis of the evidence] fails to persuade us that the exclusion of the testimony was harmful.” My view of the law and the record is that a sufficient proffer was made, under the circumstances permitted by the trial court. Winkle indicated that he wanted to testify as to his recollection of the conversations previously testified to by the Government witnesses. What his recollection might be is irrelevant to the question of admissibility. He had a right to testify as to these conversations, even if his recollection was essentially the same as the testimony of the Government witnesses, which it apparently was not. The error severely curtailed the ability of the defendant to present his testimony which the jury was entitled to hear. In my judgment, the record of the trial does not support a decision that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
I would reverse the conviction and remand for a new trial.