Court Opinion

ID: 9570278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:21:56.063045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:27.482783
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
specially concurring:
As the majority notes in section III, this case presents our first opportunity to pass on the admissibility of post-hypnotic testimony. In adopting an approach to this type of evidence, however, we are constrained by the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Rock v. Arkansas, — U.S.-, 107 S.Ct. 2704, 97 L.Ed. 2d 37 (1987). In light of the implications of Rock, I accept the approach adopted by the majority, which requires the trial court to make an individualized inquiry into the reliability of a witness’ post-hypnotic testimony. I agree as well with the majority’s conclusion that under this approach the *1020testimony of Cecilia Bieber and Officer Showalter was properly admitted.
I.
As Justice Kirshbaum describes in his dissent, hypnosis has long been recognized as a valid therapeutic tool, however, there is considerable controversy regarding the use of hypnosis as a means to refresh memory. The majority discusses briefly the concerns of the scientific community, yet downplays the growing consensus about the veracity risks associated with the use of hypnotically refreshed testimony.
The Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association reviewed the studies and literature on refreshing memory through hypnosis, Report of the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association, Scientific Status of Refreshing Recollection by the Use of Hypnosis, 253 J.A.M.A. 1918 (1985), and reiterated the problems with post-hypnotic testimony that others have also described:
hypnosis can increase the number of meaningful items remembered but it also increases overall productivity; thus, hypnosis increases the number of both correct and incorrect statements.... There are no techniques based on the individual’s report that can discriminate reliably between a true and false memory report in any specific case.
Id. at 1920. Hypnosis can also lead to “an increased vulnerability to subtle cues and implicit suggestions that may distort recollections in specific ways_” Id. at 1922. Since the subject cannot differentiate accurate recollections from “pseudomemories,” “hypnosis may increase the appearance of certitude without a concurrent increase in veracity.” Id. at 1921. The Council recommended that the use of hypnosis to enhance recall of witnesses and victims be limited to investigative purposes, and that even for those purposes specific procedural safeguards should be employed. Id. at 1922. Accord, M.T. Orne, D. Soskis, D. Dinges, E.C. Orne & M. Torny, Hypnotically Refreshed Testimony: Enhanced Memory or Tampering with Evidence? 1985 National Inst, of Just., Issues and Practices in Crim. Just. 1, 41-49; R. Udolf, Forensic Hypnosis (1983); Diamond, Inherent Problems in the Use of Pretrial Hypnosis on a Prospective Witness, 68 Calif.L.Rev. 313 (1980).
II.
Because of the veracity risks associated with hypnotically refreshed testimony, an increasing number of states have been adopting some form of a per se inadmissibility rule. However, the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Rock v. Arkansas, — U.S.-, 107 S.Ct. 2704, 97 L.Ed.2d 37 (1987), seems to dictate an approach to post-hypnotic testimony similar to that developed by the majority in this case.
In Rock, a majority of the court held that the “Arkansas per se rule excluding all post-hypnosis testimony infringes imper-missibly on the right of a defendant to testify on his or her own behalf.” Id. at 2714-15. The majority stated that the right to testify on one’s own behalf is grounded in the fourteenth amendment’s guarantee of due process of law, the compulsory process clause of the sixth amendment, and is a necessary corollary of the fifth amendment guarantee against compelled testimony. Id. at 2709-10. The Court acknowledged the problems with hypnotically refreshed testimony, yet expressed the view that effective cross-examination, expert testimony on hypnosis, and cautionary instructions can reduce the dangers of such testimony. Id. at 2713-14.
The decision emphasized that the Arkansas per se rule did not leave the trial court the discretion to consider whether post-hypnosis testimony may be reliable and admissible in a particular case. As the United States Supreme Court stated:
A State’s legitimate interest in barring unreliable evidence does not extend to per se exclusions that may be reliable in an individual case. Wholesale inadmissibility of a defendant’s testimony is an arbitrary restriction on the right to testify in the absence of clear evidence by the *1021State repudiating the validity of all post-hypnosis recollections.
Id. at 2714.
Although the actual holding of Rock is limited to a rejection of a per se rule that prevents a defendant from testifying, the language of the opinion has broader implications. The right to testify protected in Rock is grounded in part in the sixth amendment’s compulsory process clause, which grants the defendant the right to call “witnesses in his favor,” and this suggests that the approach in Rock should also apply to the defendant’s witnesses. I agree with Justice Kirshbaum that it is difficult to find a principled basis for allowing the defendant to offer post-hypnosis testimony while excluding that of other defense witnesses. Similarly, if the defense witnesses can present hypnotically enhanced testimony, it is unfair to prevent the prosecution from introducing such evidence. The language of Rock also suggests that other obstacles to the admission of post-hypnotic testimony, such as requiring reliability to be established by clear and convincing evidence, or conditioning the admissibility of such testimony on adherence to strict procedural requirements, may also be problematic, since these requirements may keep out otherwise reliable testimony.
The decision suggested that:
The State would be well within its powers if it established guidelines to aid trial courts in the evaluation of post-hypnosis testimony and it may be able to show that testimony in a particular case is so unreliable that exclusion is justified. But it has not shown that hypnotically enhanced testimony is always so untrustworthy and so immune to the traditional means of evaluating credibility that it should disable a defendant from presenting her version of the events for which she is on trial.
Id. at 2714. The opinion in Rock seems to say that the federal constitution requires flexible guidelines that leave the trial court with discretion to assess the reliability of the testimony in each individual case. Therefore, I accept the test and the preponderance of evidence standard set forth by the majority in part III of its opinion. This approach provides the trial court with guidelines to assess the reliability of evidence yet allows the court to adapt these guidelines to the unique circumstances of each case.
III.
As Justice Kirshbaum describes, the neutrality of the hypnotic sessions in this case is questionable. However, the trial court held a hearing on the admissibility of the post-hypnosis evidence of Beiber, Showal-ter and the other witnesses. The court heard the testimony of these witnesses, as well as the testimony of experts on the effects of hypnosis. As the majority points out, it was for the trial court to assess this evidence and to determine whether the reliability of the witnesses’ recollections was detrimentally affected by hypnosis. In its ruling on this issue, the trial court considered the testimony of the witnesses who had been hypnotized and reviewed the cases and literature on the topic of hypnotically enhanced testimony. The court recognized that there had been “some suggestion” in the hypnosis of the witness Bieber, but determined that her testimony was not rendered inadmissible.
Although the court did not have the guidelines developed by the majority in this case to assist in its determination, the ruling of the trial court reveals that it did consider similar criteria in assessing the admissibility of the evidence. In fact, the trial court demonstrated its awareness of the relevant factors by developing its own list of guidelines for future use in cases involving hypnotically enhanced testimony. Since the trial court has already made the requisite determination, and it is not clearly erroneous, I agree with the majority that the trial court did not err in admitting the testimony at trial.
I am authorized to say that Justice MULLARKEY joins in this special concurrence.