Court Opinion

ID: 9442450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:48:46.040982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:06.239511
License: Public Domain

BRATTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Fair and full cross examination of a government witness on the subjects of his examination in chief is an absolute right of an accused. And denial of the right constitutes reversible error. Alford v. United States, 282 U.S. 687, 51 S.Ct. 218, 75 L.Ed. 624. But an accused does not have the absolute right to extend his cross examination beyond the range of the direct examination. And whether he is permitted to do so rests in the sound judicial discretion of the trial court. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 83, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680.
Appellants sought in the course of cross examination of the government witness Welz to inquire about matters not touched upon directly or indirectly in the direct examination. And the record indicates persuasively that the effort thus to extend, the cross examination was for the purpose of getting before the jury evidence relating to a charge or threatened charge against the witness of a violation of state law wholly unrelated to the offense laid in the indictment in this case. Appellants did not have the absolute right to extend their cross examination beyond the range of the direct examination for the purpose of diverting the attention of the jury from the charge laid in the indictment to a charge or threat of a charge against the witness. And the court was well within the exercise of its sound judicial discretion in declining to permit that to be done.
I would affirm the judgments.