Court Opinion

ID: 9857178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 13:53:53.232125+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:06.157608
License: Public Domain

Stafford, J.
(dissenting) — A joint trial of persons accused of crime has the advantage of conserving trial time for lawyers, witnesses, jurors and court personnel, as well as reducing the expenditure of public funds. It also has a certain tactical appeal because codefendants may be forced to adopt defensive positions antagonistic to each other. At the very least, the prosecution has an opportunity to tar two defendants with the same brush.
Nevertheless, the joint prosecution of defendants is fraught with real risks. Evidence properly admissible against one defendant may be inadmissible and exceedingly prejudicial to a codefendant. The danger is of sufficient magnitude that the advantages of a joint trial may be out*789weighed by the practical danger of an unfair trial. Such is the case before us.
The need for severance in the instant case began to develop as early as the pretrial hearing. It increased during the course of the trial when codefendant Davis testified on recross-examination. At that point Davis testified that he did not recall having told Dr. Lambert that he, Davis, told appellant he wanted to call the whole thing off but that appellant had replied “no way.” The need for severance became more imperative when the prosecution attempted to impeach codefendant Davis by Dr. Lambert’s rebuttal testimony. In effect, Dr. Lambert testified codefendant Davis related that appellant said “no way” in response to Davis’ plea to “call the whole thing off.”
Inasmuch as the codefendant’s alleged statement was not made in appellant’s presence, its recitation by Dr. Lambert was hearsay. Clearly, Dr. Lambert’s testimony was prejudicial to appellant. It is equally clear that, had the trials been severed, Dr. Lambert’s testimony would have been inadmissible against appellant, thus avoiding the resultant prejudice.
Granted, after the jury had been subjected to the foregoing testimony of Dr. Lambert, the trial court instructed them to consider it only with reference to codefendant Davis. Nevertheless, the prejudicial damage had been done. To ask the jury to ignore the prejudicial effect of the statement against appellant was to ask the impossible. They were asked to perform an act of mental gymnastics not only beyond their powers, but anyone else’s. As stated by Mr. Justice Jackson, concurring in Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 453, 93 L. Ed. 790, 69 S. Ct. 716 (1949):
The naive assumption that prejudicial effects can be overcome by instructions to the jury ... all practicing lawyers know to be unmitigated fiction.
The jurors could not be expected to unring a bell already rung. Under the facts of this case the admonition was a meaningless gesture. Nothing more clearly illustrates the impossibility of laymen complying with the admonition *790than the fact that the prosecuting attorney himself succumbed to the temptation of using it against appellant. Twice in his final argument he mentioned “no way” as being attributed to appellant. If he, as a lawyer, could not disregard the statement’s application to appellant, how can it be argued that a lay juror could follow, or should be presumed to follow, the court’s instruction with any greater success?
Prior to and during the trial, at the end of the state’s case, and at the end of the trial, appellant Craig moved to sever his case from codefendant Davis’ prosecution. He argued that the joint proceeding would deprive him of a fair trial. Appellant’s several motions were denied.
Unfortunately, the predicted prejudicial error became a reality. It was not cured by the court’s admonition to the jury. The trial court erred by failing to grant the requested severance of the case for trial. Additional, but connected, prejudicial error occurred in the testimony of Dr. Lambert. Under the circumstances of this case, the court’s attempt to reduce the prejudicial effect of the testimony could not and did not succeed.
The trial court should be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial as to appellant Craig.
Utter, J., concurs with Stafford, J.
Petition for rehearing denied November 29, 1973.