Court Opinion

ID: 9733895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:19:57.732881+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:44.330416
License: Public Domain

FOSHEIM, Chief Justice
(concurring in result).
I agree that no reversible error resulted from the timing of the release of requested statements to defendant. However, I reach that result under the rationale that the trial court ordered release of the statements in substantial compliance with the appropriate governing statutes.
Prior to trial O’Connor requested the court for access to the grand jury testimony and statements from prosecution witnesses. Initially, the motions were not acted upon. Later, O’Connor renewed his motions and a hearing was held. Shortly, before trial, the court ordered that O’Con-nor receive both the grand jury testimony and witness statements. The state promptly complied with the order. O’Connor’s request for a continuance was denied.
The plurality opinion concludes without supporting authority that “[i]f the prosecu*257tion will not supply the defense with a copy of the [grand jury] transcript, the defense will find it impossible to confront and cross-examine the state’s witnesses, a clear Fifth Amendment violation.” It is important to first note that this is not a failure to produce issue. See generally State v. Sahlie, 90 S.D. 682, 245 N.W.2d 476 (1976). O’Connor was given access to the grand jury testimony exactly as ordered. His complaint centers on the timing of that access.
The Fifth Amendment does not ipso facto require disclosure of grand jury testimony to a defendant. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. United States, 360 U.S. 395, 79 S.Ct. 1237, 3 L.Ed.2d 1323 (1959). Under South Dakota law, grand jury testimony may be disclosed “only when directed by the circuit court preliminary to or in connection with a judicial proceeding or when permitted by the circuit court at the request of a defendant upon a showing that grounds may exist for a motion to dismiss an indictment....” SDCL 23A-5-16. This court interpreted the predecessor of this statute, SDCL 23-30-14 (providing disclosure “only when so directed by the court”), to allow the trial court, in its discretion, to allow disclosure of recorded grand jury testimony to the defense upon a showing of a “particularized need where the secrecy of the proceedings is lifted discreetly and limitedly.” State v. Bad Heart Bull, 257 N.W.2d 715, 723 (S.D.1977) (following quote in Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. United States, 360 U.S. 395, 399, 79 S.Ct. 1237, 1240, 3 L.Ed.2d 1323 (1959)).
Additionally, SDCL 23A-13-6, -7, and -10 deal with discovery of grand jury and prosecution witness statements. These sections are patterned after 18 U.S.C. § 3500, which was adopted in response to Jencks v. United States, 353 U.S. 657, 77 S.Ct. 1007, 1 L.Ed.2d 1103 (1957), and amended following Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 16 L.Ed.2d 973 (1966).
Under SDCL 23A-13-6 no statements made by prosecution witnesses are discoverable until the witness has testified on direct examination in the preliminary hearing or in the trial of the case. After the witness has so testified and upon motion by the defendant, the trial court shall order the prosecution to produce statements relating to the subject matter as to which the witness testified. SDCL 23A-13-7. A discoverable statement includes “[a] statement, however taken or recorded, or a transcription thereof, if any, made by such witness to a grand jury.” SDCL 23A-13-10(3). .
In this case, there was no preliminary hearing. The plurality opinion wrongly concludes that because a preliminary hearing and a grand jury indictment both serve to bind the defendant over for trial, SDCL 23A-13-6 must be read to warrant disclosure of grand jury testimony and prosecution witnesses’ statements upon request by the defense after indictment. Absent a preliminary hearing, grand jury testimony and witness statements is permitted only after direct examination in the trial of the case. SDCL 23A-13-6. Under the federal procedure “motions to disclose transcripts of the testimony of a grand jury witness who does not testify at trial, and pretrial motions to discover grand jury testimony of a scheduled trial witness are not covered by the Jenck’s Act. Under those circumstances, disclosure can only be made pursuant to the ‘judicial proceedings’ provision of Rule 6(e) [substantially SDCL 23A-5-16] ... for which the defendant must demonstrate particularized need.” 8 Robert M. Cipes, Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 6.05[3] (2d ed. 1981) (emphasis original).
The plurality opinion seems to condemn any exercise within SDCL 23A-13-6 as a Fifth Amendment violation even though the statute springs from the federal rule carrying federal court sanction. Criticism of the state on this issue accordingly seems unwarranted. While the prosecutor may disclose grand jury evidence, see SDCL 23A-5-17, both SDCL 23A-5-16 and SDCL 23A-13-6, and -7 contemplate no disclosure until the trial court so orders. Here, the state promptly produced when so directed by the trial court.
*258I am hereby authorized to state that Justice MORGAN joins in this concurring in result.