Court Opinion

ID: 9702772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:23:04.948044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:41.501068
License: Public Domain

WEISBERGER, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I am generally in agreement with this opinion. However, I cannot agree with the implied criticism of the doctrine enunciated in State v. DeBarros, 441 A.2d 549 (R.I.1982), regarding the lack of requirement that a cross-examining defendant need make an offer of proof in order to overcome the sustaining of an objection if he or she is exploring bias. Rule 26 does not purport to discuss offers of proof on cross-examination. The language concerning offers of proof is general and should properly apply to direct examination. There is no indication that the drafters of the rule intended to change the rules of evidence as enunciated in 1 McCormick on Evidence, ch. 6, § 51 at 197 n. 10 (Strong 4th ed. 1992).
“On cross-examination, the examining counsel is ordinarily assumed not to have had an advance opportunity to know what the witness will answer, and the requirement of an offer will not usually be applied. * * * Even on cross-examination the court in its discretion may require counsel to hint his purpose far enough to show the materiality of the answer hoped for, or enough must be made to appear so that error will be indicated upon appeal.” Id.
Moreover, it should be noted that DeBar-ros followed the doctrine enunciated in Alford v. United States in which the following comment was made:
“Cross-examination of a witness is a matter of right. The Ottawa, 3 Wall. 268, 271 [18 L.Ed. 165]. Its permissible purposes, among others, are that the witness may be identified with his community * * * and that facts may be brought out tending to discredit the witness by showing that his testimony in chief was untrue or biased.
“Counsel often cannot know in advance what pertinent facts may be elicited on cross-examination. For that reason it is necessarily exploratory; and the rule that the examiner must indicate the purpose of his inquiry does not, in general, apply. It is the essence of a fair trial that reasonable latitude be given the cross-examiner, even though he is unable to state to the court what facts a reasonable cross-examination might develop.” DeBarros, 441 A.2d at 551 (quoting Alford v. United States, 282 U.S. 687, 691-92, 51 S.Ct. 218, 219, 75 L.Ed. 624, 627-28 (1931)).
We also cited Calci v. Brown, 95 R.I. 216, 220, 186 A.2d 234, 236 (1962), for the proposition that a cross-examiner may not ordinarily be required to make an offer of proof. 441 A.2d at 551.
In any event, with the advent of Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), the right of cross-examination on bias became constitutionally entrenched. I recognize that our older cases were not uniform on this issue. State v. Henderson, 71 R.I. 219, 225, 43 A.2d 327, 330 (1945), dealt with an offer of proof on direct examination, not cross-examination. State v. Smith, 70 R.I. 500, 509-10, 41 A.2d 153, 158 (1945), did deal with a question asked on cross-examination. State v. Jefferds, 91 R.I. 214, 217, 162 A.2d 536, 538 (1960), overruled on other grounds by State v. Johnson, 119 R.I. 749, 770, 383 A.2d 1012, 1023 (1978), dealt with the advancement by the defendant of a new rule of criminal responsibility. In that case the court recommended that an offer of proof might have been made in respect to other tests. This offer of proof would have been in aid of direct examination (which never took place). Id. State v. Van Osten, 68 R.I. 175, 180-81, 26 A.2d 858, 860-61 (1942), did deal with a question asked on cross-examination of a police officer, and the absence of an offer of proof was noted.
All these cases preceded Davis v. Alaska, supra, which changed cross-examination as to bias from a mere evidentiary rule to one of constitutional dimension. Davis together with Alford indicates to me that a trial jus*332tice may not rely on the lack of an offer of proof if it is apparent from the question that cross-examination in respect to bias is taking place.
The footnote in State v. Crescenzo, 114 R.I. 242, 252 n. 1, 332 A.2d 421, 427 n. 1 (1975), was merely dictum since the holding of the case did not require the determination of the appropriateness of an offer of proof on cross-examination. Indeed, such an offer was made, and the trial justice rejected it on the ground of relevance. Id. at 251-52, 332 A.2d at 427. It should also be noted that Justice Kelleher participated in State v. DeBarros and fully concurred with the opinion in that case. Obviously the holding of DeBarros would supersede the footnote in Crescenzo.
In any event I do not believe that any erosion of DeBarros is necessary in order to sustain the evidentiary ruling of the trial justice in the case at bar. It was obvious that he knew that the counsel for the defendant was cross-examining on the issue of bias. He gave counsel an adequate opportunity to explore this question and sustained an objection only after he concluded that further cross-examination on this issue was pointless. He gave defense counsel an opportunity to indicate further the direction in which he was proceeding if counsel so desired. If a trial justice believes that a subject has been exhausted, it is appropriate for him or her to seek guidance from counsel concerning the goal of his or her examination in case the trial justice has not fully perceived it. This query is different from one requesting an offer of proof, which I believe should not be required on cross-examination. It is obviously not forbidden in the event that counsel wishes to make one. In my opinion Rule 26 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure was not intended to modify the rules of evidence as they then existed.