Court Opinion

ID: 9543373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:44:55.796709+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:13.889414
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE CLARK, specially concurring: The court reverses the defendant’s murder convictions on the ground that Cook’s testimony, recounting Foutch’s confession to having acted together with the defendant in killing Young, was improperly admitted under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule. Because its novel decision finds no support in case law and rests wholly upon a foundation riddled with conjecture, I do not join in the court’s opinion. I join in its judgment, however, because I believe that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to excuse a juror notwithstanding substantial evidence that the juror was a friend of Young’s and had been less than candid on voir dire in revealing the true nature of their relationship. I As the court acknowledges, the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule provides that a declaration of a conspirator is admissible against any other co-conspirator if made during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy, the existence of which is shown by evidence independent of the preferred declaration. (People v. Goodman (1980), 81 Ill. 2d 278, 283.) Since criminal conspiracies are, by their very nature, secretive endeavors, the great utility of the co-conspirator exception is that it aids the prosecution of cases in which proof of the crime “would otherwise be very difficult and the evidence largely circumstantial.” (United States v. Gil (7th Cir. 1979), 604 F.2d 546, 549.) While the pendency and furtherance requirements would seem to suggest the exclusion of declarations made after the principal objective of the conspiracy is achieved, Illinois courts have widely admitted under the exception declarations made in an effort to conceal the underlying offense. (See, e.g., People v. Columbo (1983), 118 Ill. App. 3d 882, 948-49; People v. McInnis (1980), 88 Ill. App. 3d 555, 565-66.) The rationale for the admission of co-conspirator declarations made during the “concealment phase” of a crime is that acts of concealment further the conspiracy by aUowing the conspirators to thwart justice and escape punishment. People v. Meagher (1979), 70 Ill. App. 3d 597, 602. The court holds that Cook’s testimony, relating Foutch’s account of the circumstances leading up to Young’s murder, was inadmissible under the co-conspirator exception because Foutch’s statements “were not made in furtherance of any effort at concealment.” (117 Ill. 2d at 393.) In my view, the court’s conclusion is premised on an analysis pregnant with speculation and wanting of sound reasoning. The morning after the murder, Cook, who did not see the killing because he was outside Young’s home at the time, told Foutch that he would talk to the police if questioned. In what can only be reasonably characterized as an effort to secure Cook’s silence, and thus conceal the robbery and murder, Foutch admonished Cook not to talk to the police or be nervous. He then related to Cook how, among other things, he hit Young over the head with an ashtray, shot him once, and the defendant shot him again. He told Cook that Young was still alive after the first shot. The court, unencumbered by the record evidence, surmises that “Foutch’s obvious motive in telling Cook that the defendant fired the second shot was not to conceal the crime but to ensure that primary blame for the crime fell on the defendant.”(117 Ill. 2d at 394.) I cannot agree. If in fact Foutch’s “obvious motive” was to shift the blame to the defendant, it is perfectly clear that he could have easily and effectively accomplished that end by telling Cook a story very different from his self-incriminating account of the killing. Cook, who did not see the actual murder, stated that he saw the defendant covered with blood and carrying a gun as he fled the scene. If Foutch truly desired to shift the blame to the defendant, he would have told Cook that the defendant fired both shots as he stood by unable to help Young. Foutch, however, did nothing of the kind. Instead, he impressed upon Cook the necessity for his silence, the gravity of the crimes if they were apprehended, and, in so doing, made a direct admission against penal interest in declaring his active participation in the killing. Given the devastatingly self-incriminating nature of Foutch’s preeustodial statements, I frankly cannot understand why the court believes they were an “obvious” effort to exonerate him or shift the blame. Nor can I endorse the court’s further conjecture: “As a matter of common sense, Foutch could certainly have believed that by implicating the defendant as the one who fired the second shot point-blank at Young’s head, and emphasizing that Young was still alive after the first shot, the defendant and not Foutch would bear the full brunt of the criminal law.” (Emphasis added.) (117 Ill. 2d at 394.) This is rank speculation and, as such, wholly unpersuasive. Certainly, it is no victory for common sense to suppose that Foutch would confess to firing the first shot and identify the defendant as firing the second all the while trader a fantasy belief that, on his precustodial account of the murder, the defendant alone “would bear the full brunt of the criminal law.” To suppose so, without any supporting facts, is to stretch the imagination, part company with common sense, and stand on its head the well-established doctrine of Anglo-American law that one is presumed to know the law. (Parker v. Levy (1974), 417 U.S. 733, 751, 41 L. Ed. 2d 439, 455, 94 S. Ct. 2547, 2559; People v. Cohn (1934), 358 Ill. 326, 331.) Thus, “common sense” would dictate that Foutch, had he wanted to shift the blame, would have simply said that the defendant fired both shots. Because the court’s freewheeling speculation fails to afford any principled basis for concluding that Foutch did not intend by his statements to secure Cook’s silence, and thereby conceal his complicity in the robbery and murder, I would hold that Cook’s testimony was admissible under the co-conspirator exception. Moreover, as a matter of judicial economy, I can see no reason for the court to even reach the co-conspirator issue. More fundamental to this appeal, the defendant argues, and the record reveals, that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to excuse a juror in light of considerable evidence, adduced before any proceedings other than jury selection, that the juror had been less than truthful on voir dire in disclosing the nature and extent of his friendship with the murder victim, Young. II During voir dire, when asked by the trial judge whether he knew Young, venireman Robert Simpson, Jr., testified that he “kind of knew him whenever he was married.” Simpson explained that Young had lived across from a park and that occasionally, when he was there on his motorcycle, Young “might come over and talk to us a while.” Any conversation with Young would not have lasted “over 15 minutes, if that.” Simpson further testified that neither he nor Young had ever visited the other in their respective homes. He stated that they had never spent a lengthy period of time together at a social gathering. Simpson stated that his acquaintance with the murder victim would not affect his ability to be impartial. Defense counsel was permitted to question Mr. Simpson. Asked whether he had ever been to the Youngs’ home, Simpson replied that he “had never been in the home” though he had ridden by it. Simpson explained that when Young was outside working on his truck, he, Simpson, would sometimes “say ‘hi’ to them, you know, like when you pass by.” The defendant moved to excuse Simpson for cause. The trial judge refused, stating that it was “not uncommon in a small rural community for people to know one another[, t]o say hello, [and] to greet people at different functions.” The trial judge based his decision on his understanding from Simpson’s answers that he and Young had “never socialized in their house[s]” and that “the meetings were just haphazard, by chance meetings and just more or less exchanging of pleasantries.” The defense did not use any of its remaining peremptory challenges against Mr. Simpson, and he was sworn as a juror. The following day, the court was informed that Steven Donoho, an investigator for the defense, had inadvertently spoken to Simpson in attempting to contact his daughter Annette, a potential witness. Donoho testified that he abandoned his inquiry with Mr. Simpson upon hearing from his wife that he had been sworn as a juror. Mrs. Simpson then took the investigator to see Annette, who was at another house. As he recalled the interview, Annette said, in referring to Young’s murder: “[W]e were shocked by this. We knew Young. And we liked him.” Mrs. Simpson agreed, adding: “We knew him. He’d been over to our house.” The court next recalled juror Simpson. After questioning him concerning defense investigator Donoho’s visit, the judge returned to the subject of Simpson’s relationship with the victim. Simpson repeated that while riding his motorcycle he would occasionally “stop and say ‘hi’ to him,” talking no longer than 15 minutes. He had come to know Young through Young’s wife, Mary. Simpson denied being a close friend to the Youngs, though he conceded that his wife had visited Mary Young “quite a bit” before the Youngs were married. Simpson also revealed that his wife had told him the previous night that Mr. Young had once come to their house to inquire about a car for sale. The defense renewed its challenge for cause. The judge again refused to excuse Simpson, stating in effect that the revelation that Young had once gone to Simpson’s home did not alter his finding that Simpson could be a conscientious and impartial juror. Following the impanelment of the jury, but before the commencement of any other proceedings, defense counsel learned that Mary Young, the victim’s ex-wife, disputed juror Simpson’s account of his relationship with Young. Mary Young testified that she had been married to the victim for three years and, except for an eight-month period, had lived with him for at least four years foUowing their divorce. During this period they were neighbors of Mr. Simpson. Mrs. Young further testified that she was “dumbfounded by the fact that Mr. Simpson would not say that he was a friend” and that, while they were neighbors, Simpson and Young were in fact “good friends.” She testified that between 1972 and 1979, Simpson visited “every couple of weeks,” usually outside in their yard. Mrs. Young also said that Simpson had visited in their home a few times, but could later recall only one specific instance. When together, Simpson and Young discussed trading and repairing cars, mechanical things, and Young’s mail trucks. Sometimes they talked for two or three hours, and Simpson would “stay until we almost had to ask him to go home because it was bedtime.” Mrs. Young stated that she and Simpson were friends, her children and his were friends, and the youngest Simpson child, in particular, would spend a great deal of time at her house. When Simpson’s wife went into labor with their youngest child, Simpson left his other two children in the Youngs’ care for the night. Mr. Simpson’s visits were often to pick up his youngest child, and he would then stay and visit. At times he would come to their home solely to visit Young. On cross-examination, Mrs. Young was asked to specify the total number of times Simpson had visited. Although she first estimated 25 to 30 times, she immediately said that it would have been more than that. She calculated that Simpson had visited some 150 times over seven years, a number based on her testimony that the men conversed every couple of weeks. Mrs. Young agreed with Simpson’s statement that he and Young had never gone out together socially, noting that Young had worked unusual hours and that he had never taken her out to a . restaurant either. On re-cross-examination, Mrs. Young admitted that she hated her ex-husband and was relieved that he was dead. Mrs. Young denied ever saying that she was glad that he had been killed. She stated that she did not see how Simpson could serve as an unbiased juror. The State then called a police officer who recalled Mrs. Young stating that she was glad her ex-husband was dead and happy that he had been murdered, but admitted that he had taken no notes of the conversation. Once again, the defense asked that Mr. Simpson be removed from the jury. The judge refused, noting that he had previously ruled that there would be no further questioning of Mr. Simpson. He found that even if everything that Mrs. Young said was true, it would not “really contradict anything that Mr. Simpson said.” Other than the fact that Mrs. Young recalled a single, specific visit by Simpson, the judge found no substantial discrepancy between their testimony. The judge stated that the conversation in the house, like those in the yard, did not involve “anything personal” and said that it could not be characterized as a “social event.” The judge found, with respect to that visit, that it was a question of credibility, and concluded that Simpson’s testimony was credible. He expressed “some concern about total reliance on Mrs. Young’s statement” because the fact that she was glad or relieved that her ex-husband had been killed “tends to show a bias in this proceeding. She may have motives of her own for testifying here.” Conceding that it would perhaps be expedient to excuse Mr. Simpson, the judge stated it was within his discretion not to do so. In my view, Mrs. Young’s testimony yielded substantial evidence that Simpson and the victim were friends and consequently that Simpson had not testified truthfully during voir dire. The trial judge’s finding of no substantial discrepancy between the testimony of Simpson and that of Mrs. Young was erroneous and his refusal to excuse Simpson an abuse of his discretion. Contrary to the ruling of the trial judge, the disparity between the testimony of Simpson and Mrs. Young was striking and hardly limited to the specific visit by Simpson which Mrs. Young related to the court. Simpson portrayed his relationship with the victim as largely a nodding acquaintance, several times likening their encounters to little more than a passing “hi” so that he only “kind of knew” Young. After Simpson’s initial testimony on voir dire, the judge, too, found that the encounters were “more or less an exchange of pleasantries.” In stark contrast, Mrs. Young testified that her ex-husband and Simpson were good friends, spending a good deal of time together, albeit not in a social context. She was also a friend of Simpson’s and frequently entrusted with the care of his children. Further, the nature of the friendship between the two families was corroborated by the uncontroverted testimony of the defense investigator, who recounted that Simpson’s daughter, Annette, told him that they knew and liked Young and were shocked by his murder; Mrs. Simpson, according to the investigator, added that Young had been over to their house. Adding to the sharply contrasting pictures of the relationship, Simpson stated that any conversations lasted no longer than 15 minutes at the most, whereas Mrs. Young stated that they often lasted two or three hours. While Simpson said that the two met only “once in a while,” Mrs. Young testified that Simpson visited regularly, every couple of weeks. Mrs. Young’s testimony also challenged Simpson’s claim that they spoke at the park or when he rode past the Young residence. Mrs. Young said that her ex-husband and Young usually spoke in the backyard, and less frequently in the house, recalling one specific conversation. Simpson never mentioned that the two families were once neighbors, that he would pick up any of his children from the Young home, or that he had left his children there when his youngest was bom. Nowhere in the record did the trial judge find that Mary Young was. not a credible witness. Rather, the judge found that, assuming her testimony was tme, nothing prevented Simpson from serving as a juror. Although the judge indicated “some concern about total reliance on Mrs. Young’s statement,” he offered no explanation as to how her ill-feelings toward her ex-husband or relief at his death could motivate her to lie about Simpson. Even if it is assumed that Mrs. Young was interested in seeing the killer go free, that goal would not have been advanced by false testimony that Simpson and Young were good friends. For if Simpson and Young were only acquaintances, and Mrs. Young had fabricated her account of their relationship, then Simpson’s removal from the jury would not have increased the defendant’s prospects for an acquittal. Moreover, Mrs. Young would be perjuring herself to remove a juror whom she knew to be impartial. Plainly, any interest in obtaining the defendant’s acquittal would be served only if Mrs. Young’s testimony that Simpson and her ex-husband were friends was the truth. Thus, it cannot be seriously maintained that Mrs. Young had a reason to lie in disclosing their relationship. Nor can there be any serious contention that a juror who is a friend of the murder victim can impartially decide the fate of the accused killer. (State v. Deatore (1976), 70 N.J. 100, 358 A.2d 163 (close relationship between prospective juror and victim); see also United States v. Allsup (9th Cir. 1977), 566 F.2d 68, 71 (two prospective jurors worked at another branch of the bank robbed by the defendant); State v. Brown (La. 1986), 496 So. 2d 261 (one prospective juror knew the victim’s parents through his son’s little league activities and had once hosted a party for the baseball team, which the victim’s parents attended; the son of another prospective juror had dated the victim once or twice, the victim had visited the prospective juror’s home a few times, and the prospective juror knew the victim’s parents); State v. Holliman (Mo. App. 1975), 529 S.W.2d 932 (prospective juror was a friend of the deceased police officer’s father, knew the victim, and was himself the father of a police officer).) “The potential for substantial emotional involvement” for a juror in such a situation is painfully evident (United States v. Allsup (9th Cir. 1977), 566 F.2d 68, 71), and gives rise to a presumption of partiality. Bare protestations of impartiality do not rebut the presumption because such assertions run “counter to human nature.” State v. Deatore (1976), 70 N.J. 100, 106, 358 A.2d 163, 166; cf. Murphy v. Florida (1975), 421 U.S. 794, 800, 44 L. Ed. 2d 589, 595, 95 S. Ct. 2031, 2036 (“juror’s assurances that he is equal to [the] task cannot be dispositive of the accused’s rights”). Here, the defendant produced substantial evidence that Simpson had a disqualifying relationship with the victim. The testimony of Mrs. Young was corroborated by the comments of the juror’s own family members which were related by the investigator and thus went far beyond establishing “mere suspicion of bias or prejudice.” People v. Porter (1986), 111 Ill. 2d 386, 405. Although questions of witness credibility generally lie in the sound discretion of the trial judge (People v. Cole (1973), 54 Ill. 2d 401, 414), a reviewing court will not “rubber stamp” an erroneous judgment that results from an abuse of that discretion. The judge here based his refusal to excuse Mr. Simpson on a demonstrably inaccurate view of the record and far too narrow a view of the type of relationship that disqualifies a juror. In addition, the judge erred in relying on a wholly unsupported belief that Mrs. Young possibly had an ulterior motive in testifying. Finally, the conclusion that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to excuse Mr. Simpson is further strengthened by the fact that the inconvenience of his disqualification would have been negligible; at that point the proceedings had not advanced beyond selection of the jury, and alternate sworn jurors were available. “[T]he right to [a] jury trial guarantees to the criminally accused a fair trial by a panel of impartial, ‘indifferent’ jurors.” (Irvin v. Dowd (1961), 366 U.S. 717, 722, 6 L. Ed. 2d 751, 755, 81 S. Ct. 1639, 1642.) Thus, it is incumbent upon the trial judge to ensure that the accused receives a fair trial by “a jury capable and willing to decide the case solely on the evidence before it.” (Smith v. Phillips (1982), 455 U.S. 209, 217, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 86, 102 S. Ct. 940, 946.) The determination of whether a prospective juror is impartial, however, is “difficult, partly because the juror may have an interest in concealing his own bias and partly because the juror may be unaware of it.” (455 U.S. 209, 221-22, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 89, 102 S. Ct. 940, 948 (O’Connor, J., concurring).) While it is perhaps possible that Simpson was unaffected by his relationship with the victim, I would hold that the trial judge abused his discretion in failing to excuse him for cause. For these reasons, I concur in the judgment of the court. JUSTICE SIMON joins in Part II of CHIEF JUSTICE CLARK’s specially concurring opinion.