Court Opinion

ID: 9679230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:44:56.175301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:11.575661
License: Public Domain

Wendell Griffen, Judge, dissenting. The substance of the constitutional protection is preserved to the prisoner in the advantage he has once had of seeing the witness face to face, and of subjecting him to the ordeal of a cross-examination. This, the law says, he shall under no circumstances be deprived of[.] — Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237, 244 (1895). The trial court — despite following the dictates of Ark. R. Evid. 804(b)(7) (2004) — admitted T.B.’s videotaped statement in violation of appellant’s Sixth Amendment rights. Because I do not agree the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, I respectfully dissent. In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), Crawford was convicted of assault after he stabbed a man who allegedly attempted to rape his wife. Crawford claimed that the stabbing was in self-defense. To disprove his defense, the State introduced a tape-recorded statement given to the police by Crawford’s wife.1 The United States Supreme Court reversed Crawford’s conviction. After laying out a detailed history of the Confrontation Clause and its applicability to out-of-court statements, the Court addressed two inferences about the meaning of the Sixth Amendment. First, it observed that the Confrontation Clause was directed at eliminating the use of ex parte examinations as evidence against the accused. The Court stated: An off-hand, overheard remark might be unreliable evidence and thus a good candidate for exclusion under the hearsay rules, but it bears litde resemblance to the civil-law abuses the Confrontation Clause targeted. On the other hand, ex parte examinations might sometimes be admissible under modern hearsay mies, but the Framers certainly would not have condoned them. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 51. Second, the Court concluded that, under Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237 (1895), the Framers would not have admitted such statements unless the declarant was unavailable to testify and unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine the declarant. The Court stated: Our later cases conform to Mattox’s holding that prior trial or preliminary hearing testimony is admissible only if the defendant had an adequate opportunity to cross-examine. Even where the defendant had such an opportunity, we excluded the testimony where the government had not established unavailability of the witness. We similarly excluded accomplice confessions where the defendant had no opportunity to cross-examine. In contrast, we considered reliability factors beyond prior opportunity for cross-examination when the hearsay statement at issue was not testimonial. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 57 (internal citations omitted). For the most part, the Court noted, past decisions had been consistent with the Framers’ understanding of the Confrontation Clause. However, the rationales behind its more recent decisions were not in line with the Framers’ intent. In Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56 (1980), the Court conditioned the admissibility of hearsay evidence on either being a “firmly rooted hearsay exception” or bearing “particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” Crawford, 541 U.S. at 60 (quoting Roberts, 448 U.S. at 66). This test, which admits evidence on the sole basis of reliability, went against Confrontation Clause jurisprudence. Reliability was subject to many factors of varying weight, that weight being decided by whatever balancing test the court is using in that jurisdiction. See generally id. (citing examples of different courts attaching the same significance to opposing factors). However, the biggest problem with the Roberts test was that it declared admissible testimonial statements that the Confrontation Clause was meant to exclude. And “[t]o add insult to injury, some of the courts that admit untested testimonial statements find reliability in the very factors that make the statements testimonial.” Id. at 65. The Supreme Court concluded that non-testimonial hearsay does not implicate the Confrontation Clause and could be guided by general hearsay principles. However, the Confrontation Clause demands that before testimonial hearsay is admitted, the declarant must be unavailable and the defendant must have had a prior opportunity to cross-examine the declarant. Therefore, to determine the admissibility of a hearsay statement that may potentially violate the Sixth Amendment, a court needs only to answer three questions: (1) is the hearsay “testimonial”; (2) is the declarant unavailable to testify;2 and (3) is the testimony being offered without the defendant having an adequate opportunity to cross-examine the declarant? If all three questions are answered in the affirmative, then the statement is inadmissible. In the case before us, T.B.’s videotaped statement was admitted in violation of appellant’s Sixth Amendment rights. First, the statement was testimonial hearsay. Although it declined to define the term “testimonial,” the Supreme Court stated, “Statements taken by police officers in the course of interrogations are also testimonial under even a narrow standard.” Crawford, 541 U.S. at 52. McCutcheon acted as a police interrogator, obtaining information to determine if T.B. had been sexually abused. Second, T.B. was unavailable at trial. Neither appellant nor the State disputed this fact. Finally, appellant did not have an adequate opportunity to cross-examine T.B. One might argue that appellant had an opportunity to cross-examine her at the competency hearing; however, that hearing would have been an improper time for appellant to cross-examine T.B. about her statement. See Scott & Johnson v. State, 272 Ark. 88, 93, 612 S.W.2d 110, 113 (1981), quoted in Proctor v. State, 349 Ark. 648, 664, 79 S.W.3d 370, 380 (2002) (“Obviously admission depends upon the circumstances surrounding the hearing. In the case of a preliminary hearing admission depends on what kind of hearing is involved and whether it is a ‘full fledged’ hearing or a limited one.”). Without a proper cross-examination, appellant was denied his Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. I recognize the problems that Crawford v. Washington, supra, presents. The drafters of Rule 804(b)(7) intended to protect children from the potential harms resulting from giving testimony in open court. Under Ohio v. Roberts, supra, the child-hearsay rule passed constitutional muster. The holding in Crawford v. Washington, supra, may operate to eviscerate the rule. See Note, Repercussions of Crawford v. Washington: A Child’s Statement to a Washington State Child Protective Services Worker May Be Inadmissible, 80 Wash. L. Rev. 219 (2005) (arguing that Crawford requires a prior opportunity to cross-examine before a child’s statement to a child protective services worker can be properly admitted). However, judges are obligated to follow the dictates of the Constitution, even at the cost of excluding valuable testimony.3 The right to cross-examine a young witness may present a problem, but the problem must be addressed by the State in its case. The State is obligated to present a competent witness. It should not be permitted to introduce evidence of testimonial statements that cannot be cross-examined, made by an incompetent witness. Rather than apply Crawford’s holding to child-hearsay statements, the majority has sidestepped the issue by declaring the error in this case harmless. The majority correctly states the law regarding harmless-error analysis regarding the Confrontation Clause. Where evidence of guilt is overwhelming and the error is slight, an appellate court can declare the error harmless and affirm. Proctor v. State, 349 Ark. 648, 79 S.W.2d 370 (2002). Before declaring that an error is harmless, an appellate court must conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the error did not contribute to the verdict. Jones v. State, 336 Ark. 191, 984 S.W.2d 432 (1999). Factors in determining whether the error was harmless include the importance of the victim’s testimony in the State’s case, whether the testimony was cumulative, the presence or absence of evidence corroborating or contradicting the testimony of the witness on material points, the extent of cross-examination otherwise permitted, and the overall strength of the State’s case. Andrews v. State, 344 Ark. 606, 42 S.W.3d 484 (2001) (citing Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673 (1986)). In this case, the only substantial testimony apart from T.B.’s videotaped statement is appellant’s statement to Detective Aber-crombie, Sangwin’s testimony that T.B. told her that appellant touched her (which might also be inadmissible under Crawford v. Washington, supra), and the medical testimony. The majority also depends on McCutcheon’s testimony in support of its decision; however, that testimony is equally inadmissible because it is also testimonial hearsay not subject to cross-examination.4 By relying on McCutcheon’s testimony, the majority relies on T.B.’s erroneously admitted unsworn statement in its harmless-error analysis. Under the majority’s circular reasoning, testimonial hearsay from a child who has been declared incompetent to testify renders the erroneous admission of that incompetent hearsay harmless. Yet, the United States Supreme Court deemed this kind of proof inadmissible and reversed an assault conviction in Crawford v. Washington, supra. The Crawford holding repudiates any notion that the error that occurred in this case was “harmless.” On the other hand, the jury watched an interview of five-year old T.B. telling an interviewer what appellant allegedly did. By holding the error harmless, the majority discounts the powerful effect of T.B.’s videotaped statement. In Bockting v. Bayer, 399 F.3d 1010 (9th Cir. 2005), the Ninth Circuit declined to hold the error harmless because “the detective’s description of [the victim’s] interview was so significant that the error could have materially affected the verdict.” Id. at 1022. The Colorado Court of Appeals also declined to hold the error harmless in People v. Vigil, supra, stating that “[although there was other corroborative evidence, . . . the child’s statements to the interviewer provided the most detailed account of the incident and afforded the jurors the opportunity to hear what had happened from the child himself.” Id. at 264 (citing People v. Newbrough, 803 P.2d 155, 161 (Colo. 1990) (“A videotaped interview of a child victim, by itself, is undoubtedly more powerful, and thus potentially more prejudicial, than testimony of a witness about what the child said.”)). Our own jurisprudence gives substantial credence to the accusations of a rape victim, as the uncorroborated testimony of a rape victim is sufficient testimony to convict. See Butler v. State, 349 Ark. 252, 82 S.W.3d 152 (2002); Chrobak v. State, 75 Ark. App. 281, 58 S.W.3d 387 (2001). Given the powerful effect that T.B.’s videotaped statement could have had on the jury, to hold that the erroneous admission of that statement was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt requires that one ignore this solid line of judicial precedent. I see no reason to do so and have found no explanation for doing so in the majority opinion. The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment exists to guarantee all litigants the right to have their legal interests adjudicated based on competent proof that is presented to impartial triers-of-fact. I do not understand how that fundamental guarantee is upheld when courts admit videotaped statements by persons that trial judges properly deemed incompetent witnesses in criminal trials. In this criminal trial for rape of a child, appellant had no opportunity to cross-examine T.B. in order to provide the trier of fact with anything close to a meaningful basis for assessing her veracity. The trial court declared T.B. incompetent to testify, yet allowed the State to introduce her videotaped statement during appellant’s jury trial. Because I do not believe it is fair to torture the Sixth Amendment merely to make child-rape convictions easier to obtain, I respectfully dissent.   The prosecution could not call Crawford’s wife to testify because of interspousal privilege, which in Washington bars a spouse from testifying without the consent of the other spouse. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 40. However, this privilege did not extend to an out-of-court statement. Id.    If the declarant testifies at trial, then testimonial hearsay may be admitted without violating the Confrontation Clause. See People v. Argomaniz-Ramirez, 102 P.3d 1015 (Colo. 2004); State v. Carothers, 692 N.W.2d 544 (S.D. 2005).    This problem is not unique to Arkansas, as other jurisdictions have found similar child-hearsay statements to be inadmissible at trial. See, e.g., People v. Sisavath, 118 Cal.App.4th 1396, 13 Cal.Rptr. 3d 753 (2004); People v. Vigil, 104 P.3d 258 (Colo. Ct. App. 2004); In re T.T., 351 Ill. App. 3d 976, 815 N.E.2d 789 (2004); Snowden v. State, 156 Md. App. 139, 846 A.2d 36 (2004).    Because the definition of “statement” includes nonverbal conduct intended by the declarant as an assertion, see Ark. R. Evid. 801(a)(2) (2004),T.B.’s use of the dolls in response to McCutcheon’s questions was equally inadmissible.