Court Opinion

ID: 9741805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:02:25.973167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:58:14.579564
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WARD, dissenting: The reason for the majority’s holding is seductively presented: to prevent an accused from manipulating the exclusionary rule in such a way as to permit the use of perjury in his defense. I consider that an invincible problem with the holding, however, is that it permits the impeachment of a witness’ credibility on the ground of an inconsistent statement, not made by the witness himself, but by another person and, further, that the impeaching would be by means of illegally procured evidence that had been suppressed in the very case. Justice Clark in his dissent cites decisions that hold such evidence cannot be used to impeach the testimony of anyone other than the defendant upon whose motion the evidence was suppressed. This is only sensible; to hold otherwise would be to contradict the nature of impeachment. McCormick, Evidence §33 (3d ed. 1984). Too, the trial court compounded its error of permitting impeachment of the witness by the suppressed statement of the defendant. The judge instructed the jury at that time: “It’s offered for the purpose of impeaching [sic] the testimony of Miss Henderson who stated to you that the defendant’s hair was black. This evidence is offered to refute and rebut that testimony, that it was not black but it was red at the point the officer said the defendant told him it was red.” The jury thus was told that the suppressed evidence was being admitted and being used as substantive evidence to contradict the testimony of the witness. Deeper confusion resulted when the trial court formally gave Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal, No. 3.11 (2d ed. 1981), which is set out in the majority opinion. Considering what had occurred the instruction was irrelevant. It did not, as the majority opinion states, “fit the situation in this case.” 123 Ill. 2d at 540. The trial court continued to confuse impeachment with rebuttal and, as the appellate court opinion noted, permitted the prosecution in final argument to make use of suppressed evidence substantively in rebuttal. (McCormick, Evidence §33 (3d ed. 1984).) The majority responds to the complaint that the court permitted this use of the suppressed evidence by commenting that control of closing argument is within the discretion of the trial court and that it will be presumed that the discretion was properly exercised. As an abstract proposition, that is undeniable, but it is obvious that it does not answer the complaint that the suppressed evidence was used in rebuttal. We cannot innocently indulge the presumption that the court properly exercised discretion when the record shows error in its exercise. Another aspect of the majority’s view with which I cannot agree is that it appears to gratuitously assume that a witness’ testimony will be perjurious or at least erroneous. To illustrate, the opinion contains statements such as: “Also, it must be apparent that the untrue statement of the witness ***” (123 Ill. 2d at 537) and “So long as the defendant and his witnesses testify truthfully and refrain from testifying in a manner inconsistent with that evidence, the defendant retains the benefits of suppression” (123 Ill. 2d at 538). The majority does not consider that there simply might be differing impressions or recollections by the defendant and the witness. For these reasons, I must respectfully dissent. JUSTICE STAMOS joins in this dissent.