Court Opinion

ID: 9476220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:50:25.542473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:11.503163
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
As the majority acknowledges, the state sought to establish that the defendant had guilty knowledge through Shank’s disputed testimony. The state contended, as did its witness Shank, that the defendant “lied” when he asked Shank to testify that the deceased was a bad person.
The defendant’s counsel was attempting through cross-examination to show that Shank was aware at the time of the telephone conversation that the deceased had committed a series of violent acts. Had he been able to establish this point, the state’s theory that the defendant had lied and by his conduct shown his awareness of his guilt would have been wholly disproved. Counsel was attempting to go beyond the witness’ general assertions and ask him about specific incidents in which the victim committed violent acts. It was this line of questioning that the trial court prohibited.1
Based upon my review of the facts adduced at trial, I believe the case was a close one. There were no eye witnesses to the shooting and the affirmative defense offered — self defense — was a plausible one. Shank’s testimony that the defendant asked him to lie was an important part of the prosecution’s case. Any acknowledgment of guilt by the defendant, direct or implied, would have been critical. Under these circumstances, the right to effective cross-examination was of the upmost importance. I believe, in light of these circumstances, that the trial judge clearly committed constitutional error when he precluded the inquiry into Shank’s knowledge of the victim’s specific violent conduct.
I am concerned that the important constitutional right of confrontation is being eroded by decisions such as the majority’s. More and more frequently, courts seem to justify serious trial errors on the ground that the error really doesn’t matter. Also, more and more frequently, we hide our errors by saying that as a practical matter the defendant received most of what he was entitled to. These are the “no harm— no foul” arguments. The problem with these arguments is that they all too often are used in cases such as the one before us where great harm may in fact result from our failure to afford defendants their full constitutional rights — and not just in legitimate harmless error cases. Another increasingly popular approach by which we summarily dispose of legitimate constitutional claims is the “nobody’s perfect” approach. We proclaim, as if we are revealing an important truth rather than simply uttering a platitude, that we cannot expect trials without errors. Again, what we all too often do as a result of our use of this approach is justify the deprivation of a defendant’s constitutional right. Increasingly, in cases like the one before us, we are sacrificing individuals’ rights in the name of judicial efficiency, or, to put it less politely, judicial expediency.
Here, it would have taken but a short time for the court to permit defendant’s counsel to conduct the searching, probing cross-examination to which his client was entitled. To say, as the majority does, that such questioning is unimportant and that permitting a few general inquiries of an adverse witness is sufficient, is, in my view, to reveal a basic misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of the right of cross-examination.

. As the district court put it in its unpublished order and opinion, "The petitioner’s counsel sought to ask Shank about specific violent acts of the victim."