Court Opinion

ID: 9561945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:19:15.38347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:40.206933
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Justice,
with whom BOOCHEVER, Chief Justice, joins, dissenting in part, concurring in part.
I agree that reversal is required in this case. However, I would base that reversal on Judge Carlson’s refusal to permit further cross-examination of H.B., the alleged victim, rather than upon his communication to the jury following its request for a playback.
Judge Carlson did not refuse to allow the playback. He simply informed the jury, through his bailiff, that the matter of a playback would be postponed until after the jury had had its dinner. According to Judge Carlson’s affidavit, he instructed the bailiff “to tell the jury that they could not hear the testimony at that time and if they still wanted to hear it after they returned from dinner they should renew their request.” The affidavit of Scott Reeves, the bailiff, states: “Judge Carlson instructed me to reply that the jury would not be allowed to listen to the tapes at that time, but could renew their request later in the evening if necessary.” Such action, in my opinion, was entirely reasonable and did not amount to a “communication” of the sort requiring the presence of defendant and counsel, so as to be error under the circumstances. Hamagan and Noffke are clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In Hannagan the court allowed a playback without the defendant present. In Noffke the court gave additional instructions to the jury without first advising counsel or the defendant. Neither case, in my opinion, supports the action that we now take. As I view the record the defendant’s substantial rights were not affected. Therefore, reversal is not required. Gafford v. State, 440 P.2d 405 (Alaska 1968).
Despite my disagreement on the issue of the playback I do concur in the result. In my opinion, reversal is required because the trial court unduly limited appellant’s right to cross-examine H.B., the alleged victim. H.B. testified on behalf of the state and was cross-examined by defense counsel. During his own case-in-chief, the defendant attempted to recall H.B. to elicit testimony as to the height of her assailant and her present estimate of the defendant’s height. Upon objection by the state, defendant’s counsel made an offer of proof to the effect that when H.B. testified before the grand jury, she described her assailant as being 5 feet 7 inches tall. During the state’s casein-chief George Walker testified that H.B. described her assailant to him as being at least 6 feet tall. Defense counsel stated that he had not known prior to Walker’s testimony that H.B. had ever given information, other than to the grand jury, relating the assailant’s height in specific terms. Counsel stated:
My purpose now is to call the witness as my own and as an adverse witness to find out how she did describe the defendant and to see if she — it would have been to see if she can describe the height of the defendant now.
The superior court ruled that he had “had ample opportunity to cross-examine the witness when she was on the witness stand earlier after she . . . testified during the state’s case-in-chief.”
The court’s refusal to allow the examination of H.B., in my opinion, amounted to a denial of his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. The credibility of witnesses is of vital importance when a conviction is based on eyewitness identification. In Noble v. State, 552 P.2d 142, 144 (Alaska 1976), we said:
We agree that convictions based solely on eyewitness identification can indeed be troublesome, and such cases demand scrupulous consideration of the demeanor and *306credibility of the state’s witnesses by the trier of fact. However, many convictions of sexual assault are necessarily based on this type of evidence because of the nature of the crime.
The court’s ruling prevented the defendant from further attacking the credibility of H.B. by impeachment, if she affirmed Walker’s testimony, or of Walker, if she did not. The right of cross-examination is included in the constitutional guarantee of the right of an accused to confront the witnesses against him. Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 315-16, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1109-1110, 39 L.Ed.2d 347, 353 (1974); Evans v. State, 550 P.2d 830, 836 (Alaska 1976). While that right is not absolute, and the trial court is vested with broad discretion in controlling the order of proof, the examination of witnesses, and the scope of cross-examination, I believe that the superior court’s refusal to allow the recall of H.B. in this case was an abuse of that discretion.
On the identification issue, I concur.