Court Opinion

ID: 9620017
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:37:06.730129+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:44.680097
License: Public Domain

*823Hill, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in the judgment. I am unable, however, to concur in all that is said in Division 2.
In that division, in discussing the rule of sequestration, the majority says that ". . . the trial court has discretion in permitting, upon request, counsel for one of the parties an opportunity to converse with a witness in the case for limited purposes, and that discretion will not be controlled unless abused.” Clearly, the majority has found that the sequestration rule prohibits counsel for one of the parties from conversing with a witness without the permission of the court.
The majority’s finding that sequestration prohibits, without court approval, an attorney from interviewing a witness under the rule is further demonstrated by the majority’s statement that . . the request of the district attorney was properly made to the court in open court.” The district attorney stated that not only would he not discuss "any testimony that has been given” but that he "would not discuss any anticipated testimony.” The majority notes that the request was allowed "upon assurances of counsel that no anticipated testimony nor any testimony that had been given in the trial would be discussed . . .” And the majority emphasizes that defense counsel raised no allegation that any impropriety had occurred in the interview.
The majority has expanded the prohibitions of the rule of sequestration of witnesses. The rule itself has been codified in Code § 38-1703 as follows: "In all cases either party shall have the right to have the witnesses of the other party examined out of the hearing of each other. The court shall take proper care to effect this object as far as practicable and convenient, but no mere irregularity shall exclude the witness.” The sequestration rule, when invoked, expressly prohibits one witness from overhearing the testimony of another witness. The rule would be violated if a witness or person who heard the witness testify related the testimony to another witness. Thus, the court is given the power to "take proper care to *824effect [the object of the rule] as far as practicable and convenient.” However, the codified rule does not prohibit an attorney from conversing with a witness without court approval. The majority has expanded the codified rule to prohibit any such conversation so as to insure that the attorney does not directly or indirectly relay the testimony of other witnesses. In doing so, the majority has overruled two decisions to the contrary.
In Booker v. State, 242 Ga. 773, 777 (251 SE2d 518) (1979), a witness testified that prior to taking the stand, the prosecutor had asked him if he remembered what the defendant had told him. The defendant contended that the rule against sequestration had been violated. This court concluded that these facts showed no violation of the rule. Therefore, according to Booker v. State, supra, the prosecutor can converse with a witness without court approval without violating the rule.
In General Oglethorpe Hotel Co. v. Lanier, 99 Ga. App. 401 (2) (108 SE2d 769) (1959), defense counsel objected that during a recess plaintiffs counsel had talked to two witnesses involving a material point in the case. The court noted that the motion was predicated upon the assumption that the conduct of plaintiff s counsel violated the rule. The court said: "A careful examination of the motion for mistrial and the ground of the motion for new trial discloses no allegation that plaintiffs counsel interviewed either of the witnesses mentioned in the motion in the presence of the other or informed either of them of what the other, or any other witness, had testified or was expected to testify.
"The ground does not show error.”
The rule prohibits counsel from informing witnesses what other witnesses have testified or will testify. It does not prohibit counsel from even interviewing a witness. It does not prohibit counsel from dicussing material points with a witness. Moreover, it does not require that counsel obtain the court’s permission before interviewing a witness.
The majority has rewritten the Code section and the rule of sequestration of witnesses contrary to the decisions and the requirements of the rule.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Nichols *825joins in this special concurrence.