Court Opinion

ID: 9766662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:56:21.752778+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:24.515833
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. The “open file” policy has once again proved that it pays to hide things you do not want discovered. The defense had no knowledge that fingerprints had been examined by the Arkansas Crime Laboratory until it was disclosed by state witnesses during the trial. There was no logical reason why the state could not have made the fingerprints, or lack of them, available to the defense. I am sure the Arkansas Crime Laboratory is not the only place in the country where latent fingerprints can be examined. We will never know whether an independent fingerprint examiner could have identified these prints and solved the case, or at least have determined whether or not the prints belonged to the defendant. We have many times held that the prosecuting attorney’s obligations of disclosure under Rule 17.1, subject to Rule 19.4, extend to material and information within the possession and control of members of his staff or others who have participated in the investigation or evaluation of the case. Thomerson v. State, 274 Ark. 17, 621 S.W.2d 690 (1981); Lacy v. State, 272 Ark. 333, 614 S.W.2d 235 (1981); and Williams v. State, 267 Ark. 527, 593 S.W.2d 8 (1979). So far as I am concerned the appellant was entitled to this potentially exculpatory information and it was prejudicial error to refuse a mistrial or, in the alternative, to grant a continuance. In Thrasher v. State, 270 Ark. 322, 604 S.W.2d 931 (1980), we held it to be reversible error when the state failed to produce evidence held in the investigator’s file. See also Lewis v. State, 286 Ark. 372, 691 S.W.2d 864 (1985), in which we held that information held by the police is imputed to the prosecution. The majority seems to hold that prejudicial error occurred, but was waived for lack of timely action by the defense. I agree that the error was prejudicial. However, I do not agree that this error was waived because of the lack of a specific objection before, during, or after the fingerprint expert testified. The basis for the motion for a mistrial clearly was the lack of an opportunity to have the prints independently examined. Next, I believe it was prejudicial error not to grant a continuance when appellant’s serologist witness was unavoidably unable to appear at the exact time he was needed. The witness had been on standby for several days. When called to come to the trial and testify it was discovered that the doctor had had a reaction to a bee sting a few hours earlier and was physically unable to appear. Since it was midafternoon and the trial was going into the next day regardless of whether this witness testified, it would have been only a slight inconvenience to the trial participants for the court to have granted a continuance. The denial of a continuance helped no one but the state. The final and most prejudicial error was in allowing testimony that appellant was unexplainably absent from his job for a period of two or three hours. The absence was two weeks prior to the rape and was not shown to have any bearing upon the trial in progress. The state argued it was relevant because the appellant could have used the time to “stalk” the victim’s residence. In addition to the prosecutor’s remarks on the subject of this absence, at least two witnesses testified concerning thé two hour unauthorized absence from work. This testimony simply was not relevant. No doubt many people see this as harmless error. To me it was highly prejudicial and this decision will result in even more serious consequences through expansion in the future. If an accused is required to account for and explain his daily and hourly activities, or inactivity, it will surely lead to more convictions, regardless of guilt. It is just as likely that the appellant spent a couple of hours at Mud Island as it is that he had been stalking the victim. He could have been thousands of places doing innumerable things. The evidence surely forced the jury to speculate about the absence and no doubt it may have had an influence in the jury’s decision. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.