Court Opinion

ID: 9738532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:55:45.670687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:06.776017
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion
Prentice, J.
I dissent from Justice Pivarnik’s majority opinion upon Issue I.
This case involves four defendants tried jointly. Two defendants had given written statements referring to themselves and the others involved (five in all). These defendants did not testify. The court admitted the statements in evidence, over the defendant’s objection, but after first deleting therefrom the references, by name, to the defendants other than the declarant. These deletions simply left a blank where a name had been used by the declarant.
*378(1) In Sims v. State, (1977) 265 Ind. 647, 358 N.E.2d 746, we expressly held such redactions to be ineffective as against a claim of unconstitutional denial of the right of confrontation. Justice Pivarnik has distinguished this case from Sims upon the basis that in Sims there was but one co-defendant and one third-party reference in the statement, whereas here, there were three co-defendants and several third-party references. He reasoned that under such circumstances the occasional substitution of a blank for a name could not be inferential of any particular person. This is correct, but I am unable to agree that the problem is thereby solved.
Justice Arterburn said in Sims, “It strains the limits of common sense to suggest that the simple deletion of a name and/or substitution of the letter ‘X’ can act as an ‘effective’ deletion in a case such as here. The appellants were jointly indicted and jointly tried. The confession of each defendant refers to the declarant and another person. The jury can draw only one inference — that the other person in each confession is the declarant’s codefendant.” 358 N.E.2d at 748.
To me, the potential for harm is increased, rather than decreased, by the vagary as to whose name might have been deleted. The jury, nevertheless, is most likely to infer that it was a co-defendant. Thus, each blank subjects each co-defendant to an inference of involvement, and the potential for harm increases proportionately as the number of blanks and the number of co-defendants increase.
My convictions in regard to the admission of redacted statements were summarized in Carter v. State, (1977) 266 Ind. 140, 361 N.E.2d 145, as follows:
“In holding that the deletions made by the trial court were not ‘effective’ we have regard for the policy pronounced in Bruton v. United States, supra, and that is that a co-defendant shall not be tainted by the out-of-court declarations of a non-testifying defendant. In protecting this right of confrontation, we cannot permit references by logical inference that could not be made directly. Because of the context in which the out-of-court statements are to *379be used, i.e. in a trial of two or more defendants wherein all are charged with the same offense, it will require more than a fig leaf to shield the non-declarants from the declarations of a declaring co-defendant. In consequence, there probably will be but few such statements that are susceptible to effective deletion within the meaning of the statute. Where such effective deletion is not clearly possible, due regard being had for the context in which the statement will be used and the normal inclination of a jury to associate a declarant’s co-defendants with pronouns or blanks or other vagaries in the edited version, the state must be left to choose between separate trials or foregoing the use of the coveted statement. In the following cases, the Court held that the redaction was ineffective because of the almost inevitable association of the appellant with the non-testifying declarant, under the circumstances of the case. United States ex rel. La Belle v. Mancusi, (1968, CA 2 N.Y.) 404 F.2d 690; Serio v. United States, (1968) 131 U.S. App.D.C. 38, 401 F.2d 989.” 361 N.E.2d at 148.
(2) Nor do I agree that this error was harmless, in view of other substantial evidence of guilt. In Carter V. State, supra, our holding was that such errors could be harmless and, in the context of that case, were harmless. Both defendants had given statements which would have been admissible in his separate trial. There were no conflicts in the statements, and neither defendant charged the other with any act not fully confessed by the other. We said:
“* * * Given the testimony of the two eyewitnesses and the confession of either of these defendants in a separate trial, a jury could not have properly done other than convict. Under these circumstances, we have no hesitancy in declaring that the improper admission of the redacted statements was harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt.” 361 N.E.2d at 148, 149.
The error in admitting the redacted statements was of constitutional dimension in that it denied the right of confrontation. Therefore, if we are to hold it to be harmless, we must find it so beyond a reasonable doubt. To quote again from Carter,
“* * * To us, there is a vast difference between evidence that is ample, that is to say evidence that would prevail *380upon review over a claim of insufficiency, and evidence that is so convincing that a jury could not properly find against it. When we find the latter, we are warranted in a determination that error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” 361 N.E.2d 148.
I would reverse and order a new trial.
Note. — Reported at 375 N.E.2d 1089.