Court Opinion

ID: 9547104
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:41:47.372334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:19.748491
License: Public Domain

BROUSSARD, J.
I dissent. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that Ford’s codefendants were “available” and that the prosecutor’s comment on Ford’s failure to call them as witnesses was proper. The prosecutor’s comment implied that defendant could have compelled his codefendants to testify and that the reason he failed to call them as his witnesses is that he knew they would refute his alibi. But Ford could not have compelled his codefendants’ testimony and the prosecutor’s implication to the contrary was misleading and unfair. The trial court properly granted defendant’s *450motion for new trial on the ground that “the prosecutor’s comment on the failure of defendant Ford’s codefendants to testify was improper and prejudicial, in that Eric Ford’s codefendants were not available to testify at this trial due to the strong likelihood that they would have correctly asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify, and that the unavailability of the codefendants was known to the prosecutor, making an advance showing unnecessary.” Since the majority offer no reason to interfere with the trial court’s correct application of the law and considered exercise of discretion, we should sustain the trial court’s ruling.
Discussion
When material evidence is not produced during the course of a trial, an adverse inference may be raised against the party who would have been expected to produce it if it had been favorable to him or her. (Graves v. United States (1893) 150 U.S. 118, 121 [37 L.Ed.1021, 1023, 14 S.Ct. 40]; Kean v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (9th Cir. 1972) 469 F.2d 1183, 1187-1188; People v. Coleman (1969) 71 Cal.2d 1159, 1167 [80 Cal.Rptr. 920, 459 P.2d 248].) The inference, which may be argued to the jury, is that the party who failed to produce the evidence did so because he or she knew it was damaging. The rationale behind this rule is that a party in an adversarial proceeding is naturally motivated to produce any favorable evidence he or she possesses. (2 Wigmore, Evidence (Chadbourn ed. 1979) § 286, pp. 199-200.) Given the variety of reasons that might motivate a party to decide not to present evidence, the rule is applied only when certain conditions have been met.1
In this case, the propriety of the prosecutor’s comment depends upon whether or not Cooper and Elder, Ford’s codefendants, were available to testify. (See Graves v. United States, supra, 150 U.S. at p.121 [37 L.Ed. at p. 1023]; Forsberg v. United States (9th Cir. 1965) 351 F.2d 242, 249; People v. Coleman, supra, 71 Cal.2d at p. 1167; see also 2 Wigmore, Evidence, supra, § 287, p. 202.) The majority conclude that they were available to testify because both were subject to subpoena. They further conclude that the codefendants were not rendered unavailable by their present right to assert the privilege against self-incrimination since Ford did not call them as *451witnesses in order to compel them to expressly assert the privilege and thereby establish their unavailability.
The majority’s approach is flawed in several respects. First, it departs from the cases defining a witness as “unavailable” if the defendant has no power to compel the witness’s testimony. Second, it requires the defendant to anticipate the prosecutor’s comment and to seek a prior ruling on its impropriety. Finally, it compels a result contrary to that reached by the trial court after a considered exercise of discretion.
The crucial inquiry in determining the availability of witnesses in this context is whether or not the party against whom the inference is drawn can compel the witness’s testimony. In People v. Coleman, supra, 71 Cal.2d at p. 1167, for example, this court noted that “[bjefore the enactment of the Evidence Code it was misconduct for the prosecuting attorney to comment on the failure of a defendant’s spouse to testify for the defendant. (People v. Wilkes (1955) 44 Cal.2d 679, 687 [284 P.2d 481], and cases cited.) At that time, however, neither spouse could testify for or against the other without the consent of both. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1881, subd. 1; Pen. Code, § 1322; both repealed effective Jan. 1, 1967.) Accordingly, it was improper to comment on the defendant’s spouse’s failure to testify, for the defendant could not compel his spouse to testify either for or against him.” (Italics added.)
In a similar case involving the former spousal privilege, the court emphasized that the prejudicial effect of the prosecutor’s comment was compounded by the trial court’s instruction effectively informing the jury that it should disbelieve the defendant since he did not call his wife to corroborate his testimony. (Wilkes, supra, 44 Cal.2d at p. 688.) The court noted that “[c]ontrary to the effect of the trial court’s instructions, [defendant] had no power to produce his wife as a witness if she did not consent to testify.” (Ibid., italics added.) Neither Coleman, supra, 71 Cal.2d 1159, nor Wilkes, supra, 44 Cal.2d 679, required the defendant to subpoena the witness and to perform the ritual of having her claim the privilege.2
The prosecutor’s speculation about the motives underlying Ford’s failure to call his codefendants necessarily implied that Ford could have compelled *452their testimony, and the jury was likely to so conclude. However, Ford could not have compelled the testimony of his codefendants and to imply otherwise was misleading. It is undisputed that both Cooper and Elder were in a position to assert the privilege against self-incrimination. At the time of defendant’s trial, both had been charged with the same crime for which defendant was being tried but neither had been sentenced. Under the California Constitution, an accused does not lose his privilege against self-incrimination until he has been sentenced. (Cal. Const., art. I, § 15; People v. Kizzee (1979) 94 Cal.App.3d 927, 938 [156 Cal.Rptr. 784].)
Nevertheless, the majority conclude that there is no reason to believe that the testimony of Cooper or Elder would have incriminated them or that the court would have sustained their claim of privilege if they had asserted it. Either Ford was lying, the majority argue, or Cooper and Elder would have simply corroborated his testimony concerning their innocent activities on the day before the crime. This “either-or” approach is misleading and distorts the applicable legal standard. The trial court must sustain a claim of privilege “unless it clearly appears to the court that the proffered evidence cannot possibly have a tendency to incriminate the person claiming the privilege.” (Evid. Code, § 404, italics added.) This determination involves an assessment of the relationship between the witness’s potential testimony and his legal status. Speculation about whether or not defendant was telling the truth does not enter into this determination.
Cooper and Elder were logical witnesses to corroborate defendant’s alibi. However, they were also charged with the same crime for which defendant was being tried. There is no question that their testimony concerning the events on the day of the burglary and the day before could “possibly have a tendency to incriminate [them].” (Ibid.) The trial court properly determined that they could have correctly asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify.
The trial court further concluded that the prosecutor knew Ford’s codefendants were unavailable and that an advance showing was unnecessary. The majority, however, would require defendant to anticipate that the prosecutor intends to comment on the missing codefendants and either call them as witnesses to establish their unavailability or seek an anticipatory ruling on the issue. Because Ford failed to take either precaution, the majority deem his codefendants available. I can think of no other circumstance in’ which a party’s objection to his opponent’s argument is automatically overruled because the objector did not seek to preclude the comment *453before it was made. The majority provide no authority to support this illogical and unjust approach.3
The majority observe that a witness bears the burden of showing that he is entitled to claim a testimonial privilege (Evid. Code, § 404), but that has no bearing on this case. The codefendants were not called as witnesses and did not claim entitlement to a privilege. The question is which party has the burden of showing whether or not the witnesses are available. The obvious answer is that the party who wants to make use of the fact ought to prove it. If the prosecutor wants to argue that defendant could have called his codefendants as witnesses, she should prove that they would have been available to testify.4
Furthermore, even assuming defendant should have established the unavailability of his codefendants prior to the prosecutor’s comment, there is no reason to believe that the trial court would have ruled any differently on the propriety of the inference in the context of a preargument motion than it did in the context of a motion for new trial. Both parties fully briefed the issue in connection with defendant’s motion for a new trial. After considering their respective arguments, the trial court found the prosecutor’s argument inappropriate.
Ford seeks application of the general rule that codefendants must be considered unavailable for the purposes of precluding prosecutorial argument on the defendant’s failure to call them as witnesses.5 In their zeal to reject the general rule, the majority fail to acknowledge the trial court’s determination that on these facts, the prosecutor’s argument was improper *454and prejudicial, and necessitated a new trial. “The determination of a motion for a new trial rests so completely within the court’s discretion that its action will not be disturbed unless a manifest and unmistakable abuse of discretion clearly appears, and the order will be affirmed if it may be sustained on any ground, although the reviewing court might have ruled differently in the first instance. [Citation.]” (Shaw v. Pacific Greyhound Lines (1958) 50 Cal.2d 153, 159 [323 P.2d 391]; see also People v. Robarge (1953) 41 Cal.2d 628, 633 [262 P.2d 14]; People v. Roubus (1966) 65 Cal.2d 218, 220-221 [53 Cal.Rptr. 281, 417 P.2d 865]; People v. Montgomery (1976) 61 Cal.App.3d 718, 728-729 [132 Cal.Rptr. 558]; People v. Cartwright (1979) 98 Cal.App.3d 369, 381 [159 Cal.Rptr. 543].) The majority do not identify any flaw in the court’s considered exercise of discretion, nor do they offer any justification for replacing it with their own.
As established, the trial court’s determination that Cooper and Elder could have properly refused to testify is supported by law and logic. Equally reasonable is its determination that Ford did not call his codefendants as witnesses because he believed they would not have testified. The trial court was well within its province to sustain defendant’s objection to the prosecutor’s comment suggesting that defendant’s motives were to conceal unfavorable testimony.
The trial court also acted within its discretion when it determined that its admonition was not adequate to repair the harm caused by the prosecutor’s misleading comment. This was not a case in which evidence of guilt was overwhelming. The testimony of two important prosecution witnesses was compromised because of erroneous descriptions of the defendant’s race and clothing, and the jury had difficulty reaching a verdict.
Shirley Williams testified that she could not identify defendant as the White man she saw on the day of the burglary because she had not seen his face. But she recalled that he was wearing the same clothing when she first saw him at the scene as when he was arrested directly afterward. She stated that he was wearing a white T-shirt and Levi’s. However, a photograph taken by the police following his arrest shows defendant wearing a black coat, blue pants and a dark blue sweatshirt.
Patricia Blair testified that she observed a White man and a Black man leaving the yard of the burglarized home. However, on the day of the crime, she told the officer that she saw a Mexican man and a large Black man emerge from the yard. The officer’s written report confirms this version.
The jury, after hearing all the evidence and deliberating over two hours, was divided evenly and was unable to reach a consensus. It requested that *455Blair’s and Williams’s identification testimony be read to them, as well as Officer Carlson’s testimony concerning his initial contact with the defendant and defendant’s testimony covering the time he left Cooper’s house until he was arrested. The trial court’s conclusion that the prosecutor’s comment prejudicially misled the jury was reasonable.
Though the majority reject the general rule that comment on defendant’s failure to call his codefendants as witnesses is improper, they do not conclude that such comment is always proper as a matter of law. Indeed, they acknowledge that the trial court must have discretion to determine when the circumstances of the case are such that comment is not permissible. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 446.) They completely fail, however, to identify the manner in which the trial court abused its broad discretionary powers in this case.
I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

As one commentator noted, “[a] person’s failure to produce evidence is ambiguous; a variety of considerations unrelated to guilt might motivate him not to put a particular witness on the stand. He may fear that the witness he calls will be impeached because of a criminal record, that the person’s appearance or mannerisms will adversely impress the jury, or that the potential witness is just too unpredictable or untrustworthy to call.” (Comment, Drawing an Inference from the Failure to Produce a Knowledgeable Witness: Evidentiary and Constitutional Considerations (1973) 61 Cal.L.Rev. 1422, 1427; see also United States v. Busic (3d Cir. 1978) 587 F.2d 577, 586.)

The majority misstate the holding in Wilkes and analogous cases. They assert that the guiding principle in these cases is that comment on defendant’s exercise of his privilege is forbidden. This interpretation is only half right and ignores the dual nature of the former spousal privilege. Under former Penal Code section 1322, a defendant’s spouse could assert her privilege not to testify for or against the defendant, and the defendant could assert his privilege to prevent his spouse from testifying for or against him. Accordingly, in this context, there are two reasons for prohibiting comment. Comment is improper both because it implicates the holder’s exercise of his privilege and because it inaccurately implies that he could compel his spouse’s testimony.

 Those cases which suggest that a ruling on the question of availability be sought prior to a comment or instruction raising an adverse inference charge the party seeking to raise the inference with the burden of notifying the court of its intention to do so. (State v. Clawans (1962) 38 N.J. 162, 172 [183 A.2d 77, 82.]; Gass v. United States (1969) 416 F.2d 767, 775 [135 App.D.C. 11]; United States v. Blakemore (6th Cir. 1973) 489 F.2d 193, 196.)

 Herein lies the essential difference between our position and that of the majority. The majority assert that because the prosecution could not predict whether Ford’s codefendants would testify, it is entitled to rely on the utterly untenable assumption that codefendants who stood the risk of self-incrimination nevertheless would have testified. By testifying, the majority contends, defendant assumed the burden of establishing that his codefendants’ would not have testified in order to prevent the prosecution from arguing to the contrary. It is more logical to assume that codefendants who are charged with the same crime as that for which defendant is being tried are not likely to testify. The party who seeks to argue otherwise should bear the burden of refuting this assumption by establishing the facts upon which its argument rests.

The rule is followed in several other states. (State v. Cavness (1963) 46 Hawaii 470 [381 P.2d 685, 686]; Morgan v. State (1972) 49 Ala.App. 330 [272 So.2d 256, 259-261]; Christensen v. State (1974) 274 Md. 133, 139-140 [333 A.2d 45]; Hadley v. State (1975) 165 Ind.App. 416 [332 N.E.2d 269, 272]; see also 29 Am.Jur.2d, Evidence, § 181 at p. 228; Gershman, Prosecutorial Misconduct (1986) § 10.3(b), pp. 10-24.).