Court Opinion

ID: 9462376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:39:34.858171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:33.810830
License: Public Domain

ALDRICH, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I regret that I am unable to concur, in part because of what the court says, and in part because of what it overlooks. In justifying its failure to follow the Supreme Court decisions, the court has conjured up a new type of threat to the witness, and approved a shift, without prior notice, of the burden to the defendant.
I can think of no basis for accepting Justice White’s danger-to-the-witness exception as law, particularly having in mind that it was not adopted by the Court, without giving full weight to the heavy burden he placed on the prosecution.
“[T]he State or the witness should at the very least come forward with some showing of why the witness must be excused from answering the question. The trial judge can then ascertain the interest of the defendant in the answer and exercise an informed discretion in making his ruling.” Smith v. Illinois, 1968, 390 U.S. 129, 134, 88 S.Ct. 748, 751, 19 L.Ed.2d 956. (Emphasis suppl.)
But even if the burden were less, the record supports no finding against the defendant whatever. A straw man has bested the Supreme Court’s rule.
On the record before it, the trial court knew, (1) that defendant had a gun (but not whether he had threatened the complaining witness — this was the question at issue); (2) that the crime, if any, had been a solitary one, with no confederates, and (3) that the defendant was in custody. In this circumstance the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 303 N.E.2d at 114, post, and this court, do not find the address irrelevant, but decide three things: that a threat was “inherent in the situation,” and that defendant had the burden, and counsel for defendant the opportunity, to give reasons for asking the question to “weigh against” the danger to the witness. See Commonwealth v. McGrath, 1973, Mass. A.S. 1387, 1397, 303 N.E.2d 108, 114. I must disagree with respect to all three.
Quite apart from the burden of proof, on this record there was no affirmative evidence of a threat to the witness in the sense that the cases recognize, but, rather, the contrary. It does not advance the argument to call the threat “inherent.” Inherent in what? Defendant was in custody. Even were he not, if a threat is “inherent” simply because violence may have been involved in the commission of the asserted crime, we have established a very broad class of defendants who will be limited in their constitutionally basic right of cross-examination. Furthermore, this reasoning is not a “must,” to quote Justice White, but' pure bootstrap, fundamentally violating the presumption of innocence. If, merely because violence was allegedly involved, the exception and not the Supreme Court’s rule is to govern, it can only be by assuming defendant’s guilt, the very question to which the cross-examination was directed. I cannot believe this was what Justice White intended.
The court’s citation of United States v. Alston, 5 Cir., 1972, 460 F.2d 48, is interesting for its differences. Alston was a drug case, where the government sought to avoid disclosing the address of the informer. Even if the particular defendant was innocent, the day-to-day personal dangers that a drug informer runs are obvious. This is a typical situation where weighable danger might be found *687to be inherent. It is at the opposite pole from the case at bar. Nor am I persuaded by the court’s citation of United States v. Daddano, which involved actual attempts to silence witnesses. 432 F.2d at 1122-23, 1127, 1128.
In this circumstance, apparently recognizing that there was no immediate threat, the court holds that a threat to the witness exists in the possibility that the defendant may be acquitted and seek retribution. No case is cited recognizing this type of threat. I cannot think that the fact that the jury may find the defendant innocent should be ground for the court to presume him guilty.
Even affirmative proof of a danger of reprisals is not normally an excuse for not testifying. Piemonte v. United States, 1961, 367 U.S. 556, 559, 81 S.Ct. 1720, 6 L.Ed.2d 1028, n. 2. If, simply by inference, a trial court can avoid the Supreme Court’s rule, the rule is a dead letter.1
This leads me to say that it is purely speculative to assume that the trial court’s reason for denying the witness’s address to a defendant in custody was threat of danger at all. The court gave no reason. It may be that it felt, particularly when the witness had moved into a new neighborhood, that revealing her address, perhaps for the newspapers, would be an embarrassment. Embarrassment is not even a weighable excuse.2 United States v. Doe, 1 Cir., 1973, 478 F.2d 194, 195. The sole question is relevancy. Cf. Alford v. United States, 1931, 282 U.S. 687, 51 S.Ct. 218, 75 L.Ed. 624.
Relevancy, as the Supreme Judicial Court recognized, seems clear. The court’s saying that there is but a doubtful coloration difference between the witness’s (unknown) present address and her previous residence, and that, in spite of the brief period available during a short trial, it is unassessable whether her present address would have aided investigation — and that nothing had been shown — is inconsistent with the doctrine that when there has been a constitutional deprivation the burden is not on the defendant to show the consequences. The burden is on the state to show beyond a reasonable doubt that there was none. Chapman v. California, 1967, 386 U.S. 18, 21-24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705. I cannot think the state entitled to a ruling as matter of law. Indeed, I am offended by the state’s refusal to give any addresses prior to trial and then arguing that to give the present residence during trial was neither “needed nor helpful.”3 Yet, in effect, in the absence of a justifiable excuse, the court is doing little different.
Finally, I cannot read the colloquy, quoted in full in the opinion, as offering defendant even the “opportunity” to state his case. Parenthetically, then Superior Court Rule 71 provided,
“Objections to evidence shall be decided without argument unless the presiding justice calls upon the parties to state the grounds upon which the evidence is offered or objected to.”
*688I read this to mean that both parties, unless asked to comment, should keep silent, except for an offer of proof, if required. On cross-examination none was. See Commonwealth v. Rudnick, 1945, 318 Mass. 45, 56, 60 N.E.2d 353. But quite aside from this rule, which I believe to be normal practice, rule or no rule, I repeat the quotation which my brethren take from Alford (and Smith) but apparently do not take to heart — -the question “Where do you live?” is appropriate “without any . . . declaration of purpose.” If a court is going to reverse a universal rule as to who is to go forward when a prima facie proper question has been asked, at a minimum counsel should be affirmatively notified. It should not be enough to praise counsel afterwards for being vigorous and competent.
I cannot believe this defendant received due process. I further fear that the reasons given for holding otherwise will lead to much mischief, (a) in further disregard of the Supreme Court’s rulings respecting basic cross-examination, and (b) in connection therewith causing trial counsel, who have troubles enough, to live with a principle that tells them not to volunteer or argue, while having to look over their shoulder at a possible appellate court that will tell them they should not have adhered to it. This last is a heavy, and unwarranted, burden to place on counsel who finds his client receiving a 10 to 15 year sentence, perhaps because he guessed wrong. I dissent.

. I may add, with due respect to my brethren, that I am quite unpersuaded that a man bent on reprisals would be deterred by not being given the present residence when he knows the witness’s name, her recent residence, and the name and address of her employer. All that concealing the present residence would accomplish would be to impede counsel in the brief time he had to investigate. And, of course, conceal whatever color attached to the new address.

. It seems hardly appropriate to compare embarrassment to the witness with the injury to the defendant if he is wrongly convicted for lack of proper cross-examination. I say this without in any way denigrating the great discomfort of a complaining witness, on the assumption, of course, that she is telling the truth.

. While this factor is not of itself determinative, I note that defendant was denied the witness’s address in peculiarly prejudicial circumstances. As shown in the court’s opinion, by the prosecution’s questioning it was made to appear that the address should be withheld from the defendant. When the court sustained the prosecutor’s objection to defendant’s inquiry, any unfavorable implication received judicial approval. I suggest defendant was not only deprived of his rights; he may have been blackened by the very act of deprivation.