Court Opinion

ID: 9486686
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:56:21.581583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:52.406249
License: Public Domain

LEVAL, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I also vote to affirm the district court’s dismissal of the petition, but for a slightly different reason. While I agree with Judge Kearse’s conclusion that the error committed was harmless, in my view it was not an error of constitutional magnitude. Not every erroneous limitation on a defendant’s cross-examination constitutes a deprivation of the right of confrontation guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. I agree with my colleagues that the trial judge was mistaken in disallowing the deféndant’s effort to cross-examine Ebony about her babysitting, as a possible source of bias. I believe, however, that this error under the state law of evidence did not implicate federal constitutional rights or, consequently, federal habeas corpus relief.
In Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986), the Supreme Court found a Confrontation Clause violation where a state trial court had “prohibited all inquiry [by the defendant] into the' possibility that [a prosecution witness] would be biased....” Id. at 679, 106 S.Ct. at 1435. That is the ruling we interpret in deciding whether Henry’s petition sets forth a valid federal constitutional claim.
The language of the Van Arsdall opinion is somewhat ambiguous as to where the line is drawn between erroneous restrictions that do, and those that do not, violate the Confrontation Clause. The Court asserted:
We think that a criminal defendant states a violation of the Confrontation Clause by showing that he was prohibited from engaging in otherwise appropriate cross-examination designed to show a prototypical form of bias on the part of the witness, and thereby “to expose to the jury the facts from which jurors ... could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness.”
Id. at 680, 106 S.Ct. at 1435 (quoting Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 318, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1111, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974)). This sentence could be read to mean two very different things. The more inclusive meaning would be that any prohibition of a proper question designed to show a bias violates the Confrontation Clause. A narrower reading would be that restrictions of cross-examination to show bias do not violate the Constitution unless they are sufficiently gross and broad that they effectively “prohibit[] [the defendant] from engaging in” cross-examination to show the bias.
I construe the Court’s opinion to come closer to the latter than the former. First, the Court stressed that the trial court “prohibited all inquiry,” id. 475 U.S. at 679, 106 S.Ct. at 1435 (emphasis in original), into the possibility of bias. The opinion continues, “By thus cutting off all questioning about ah event that [might have] ... furnished the witness a motive for favoring the prosecution in his testimony, the court’s ruling violated respondent’s rights secured by the Confrontation Clause.” Id. In addition, the Court explained,
It does not follow, of course, that the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment prevents a trial judge from imposing any limits on defense counsel’s inquiry into the potential bias of a prosecution witness. On the contrary, trial judges retain wide latitude insofar as the Confrontation Clause is concerned to impose reasonable limits on such cross-examination based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness’ safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant. And as we observed earlier this Term, “the Confrontation Clause guarantees an opportunity for effective cross-examination, not cross-examination that is effective in whatever way, and to whatever extent, the defense might wish.”
Id. (quoting Delaware v. Fensterer, 474 U.S. 15, 20, 106 S.Ct. 292, 294, 88 L.Ed.2d 15 (1985)).
I understand this discussion to mean that even erroneous restrictions on the showing of bias through cross-examination do not rise to the level of constitutional violations unless the defendant is effectively deprived of the opportunity to impeach the witness through the claimed bias. This interpretation is further supported by the description of the *1218holding in Justice Marshall’s separate opinion. Justice Marshall wrote, “The Court today properly holds that a complete denial of cross-examination designed to explore the bias of a prosecution witness violates the Confrontation Clause-” Id. 475 U.S. at 686, 106 S.Ct. at 1439 (Marshall, J., dissenting on other grounds).
Other cases in which federal courts have found Confrontation Clause violations in state court trials have likewise involved gross foreclosure of the opportunity to show a bias or disability, rather than partial curtailment. In Olden v. Kentucky, 488 U.S. 227, 109 S.Ct. 480, 102 L.Ed.2d 513 (1988), for example, the defendant, charged with rape, maintained that his sexual acts with the complainant had been consensual. He sought to show by cross-examination that the complainant maintained an intimate relationship with-his half-brother, so that he could argue that her accusation of rape stemmed from a desire to protect this relationship by denying her consensual intimacy with the defendant. The Supreme Court held that preclusion of this line of cross-examination violated the Confrontation Clause. While noting that the trial court may impose “reasonable limits” on defense questioning to expose bias, the Court held it was “beyond reason” to preclude questioning with “such strong potential to demonstrate the falsity of [the complainant’s] testimony.” Id. at 232, 109 S.Ct. at 483. In Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), the trial court precluded the defendant from bringing out a prosecution witness’s status as a juvenile offender on probation. The Court held that the Confrontation Clause had been violated because the ruling prevented the jury from considering whether the witness’s testimony was biased to curry favor with the police or to shift suspicion from himself. See also United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45, 50, 105 S.Ct. 465, 468, 83 L.Ed.2d 450 (1984) (“the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment requires a defendant to have some opportunity to show bias on the part of a prosecution witness”) (emphasis added).
I do not believe the trial judge’s erroneous evidentiary rulings in this case sufficiently precluded the defendant’s efforts to impeach the witness for bias to violate the Confrontation Clause. As set forth in Judge Kearse’s thorough opinion, the defendant was given wide latitude to cross-examine Ebony, probing for possible bias and motivation to he. The cross-examination included Ebony’s awareness that her mother made love to Henry, her feeling that her mother “wasn’t paying any attention to me,” and that she had written a note saying, “I feel like I am nobody. She makes love to him.” The questioning explored whether Henry’s relationship with Ebony’s mother caused her to feel jealous and neglected. The cross-examination thus exposed the jury to facts from which they could infer bias on Ebony’s part. Furthermore, the only fact precluded from the cross-examination — that Ebony’s mother had asked her to babysit — had been brought out in the examination of the mother and was thus available to support an argument of bias arising from the imposition of this possibly unwelcome duty, even without the defendant having asked Ebony about it.
I therefore conclude that the erroneous curtailment of the cross-examination of Ebony was neither so broad nor so important as to constitute a violation of the Confrontation Clause. I would therefore rule that Henry failed to establish a cause of action under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Accordingly, in my view, the petition should have been dismissed without reference to the degree of harm that might have been caused by the trial court’s erroneous evidentiary ruling.