Court Opinion

ID: 9474567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:01:44.165995+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:11.093106
License: Public Domain

*1002HUG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
Without a doubt, Gayle Ostberg’s preliminary hearing testimony was the most damaging evidence admitted at petitioner’s trial. As the majority summarized, Ostberg testified that petitioner admitted killing Hughes because Hughes had threatened petitioner’s mother with a knife. Her testimony also included a detailed account of how petitioner killed Hughes — that on the night in question Ostberg saw the petitioner at his mother’s home in a drunken state, wearing a blood stained shirt, with knuckles that were badly bruised and cut. The devastating nature of her testimony was obvious; she was a key part of the state’s case. Before trial, Ostberg’s mother sent the prosecution a letter that Ostberg had written sometime earlier. In the letter, Ostberg exonerated petitioner and implicated herself in the Hughes, murder.
In order to admit Gayle Ostberg’s preliminary hearing testimony, the prosecution must satisfy a two-prong test established by the Supreme Court in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 65, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 2538, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980). The first prong establishes a rule of necessity; the prosecution must demonstrate that Gayle Ostberg is unavailable before her prior testimony can be used. Id. Second, assuming Gayle Ostberg is unavailable, her prior testimony must meet certain “indicia of reliability.” Id. at 65-66, 100 S.Ct. at 2539. The majority felt that the “crux of this case” concerned Ostberg’s unavailability as a witness. The second prong, reliability, hardly detained the majority. The majority simply concluded that her testimony was reliable and did not address the effect of the letter Ostberg wrote in which she exonerated petitioner and implicated herself. Because this case hinges on an appraisal of both prongs of the Roberts test, I will set forth separately my differences with the majority on each issue.
A. Unavailability
In Barber v. Page, 390 U.S. 719, 88 S.Ct. 1318, 20 L.Ed.2d 255 (1968), the Supreme Court stated that “a witness is not ‘unavailable’ for purposes of the foregoing exception to the confrontation requirement unless the prosecutorial authorities have made a good-faith effort to obtain his presence at trial.” Id. at 724-25, 88 S.Ct. at 1322. In footnote 4 of the Barber opinion, the Court implied that a finding of good faith is precluded when the prosecutor fails to use the Uniform Act. Id. at 723, 88 S.Ct. at 1321; Daboul v. Craven, 429 F.2d 164, 167 (9th Cir.1970).
In this case, the prosecutor’s office prepared the necessary paperwork under the Uniform Act. However, the prosecutor decided not to serve Ostberg with the subpoena. The prosecutor was already aware of Ostberg’s unreliability since she had disappeared a short time before the preliminary hearing. In lieu of a subpoena, the prosecutor relied instead on an informal promise from Ostberg’s mother that her daughter would appear at trial. The prosecutor contends that an informal arrangement between the mother and the prosecutor was the best way to assure that Ostberg would be present.
It is incredible that Ostberg would be less likely to flee if she were under a court order to appear than if her mother merely promised to produce her. By complying with the Uniform Act, the prosecutor could have imposed on Ostberg a legal obligation to appear; whereas here, she was under no compulsion whatsoever. In fact, there was every incentive for her not to appear in light of the conflict between her prior testimony and the letter she wrote sometime later. Moreover, the failure to comply with the Uniform Act creates an inference that the decision was made for tactical benefit, since the prosecution greatly benefited from her disappearance. Ostberg’s prior testimony could, under these circumstances, be used without subjecting her to cross-examination about her inconsistent later statements in the letter.
The prosecution failed to meet its burden of establishing Gayle Ostberg’s unavailability because the prosecution failed to utilize the Uniform Act. The prosecution did not *1003even contact Gayle Ostberg, herself, or even procure a promise from her. The informal promise from her mother was a weak alternative when compared to the enforcement mechanism provided by the Uniform Act. Even assuming the best of motives, the prosecution gambled by not having Ostberg subpoenaed. Therefore, it should be required to bear the consequences of her nonappearance — the exclusion of her testimony — and should not be allowed to benefit from it by being allowed to avoid cross-examination of Ostberg as a witness.
B. Reliability
Even if Ostberg was unavailable, her prior testimony at petitioner’s preliminary hearing1 still lacked the requisite indicia of reliability. The majority concludes that the ability to cross-examine Ostberg at the preliminary hearing provided the necessary reliability, but what the majority overlooks is that between the preliminary hearing and trial, Ostberg wrote a letter that not only recanted her earlier incriminating testimony, but also implicated herself in the crime. To say that petitioner’s counsel was able to explore this critical development at petitioner’s preliminary hearing is unrealistic. Counsel could not cross-examine Ostberg about a letter that had not yet been written.
To say that this testimony bears the necessary “indicia of reliability” creates an inference that the testimony is either unchanged or that it is likely to be consistent with earlier expressions. When new developments cast doubt upon this inference, the testimony obviously becomes unreliable. This does not mean that minor deviations render earlier statements invalid. We all expect subtle differences to occur, however, when material testimony is contradicted by the affiant’s later statements, the earlier expressions become suspect.
In this case, Gayle Ostberg changed her story completely. Not only did she exonerate the petitioner, she also implicated herself. Thus, her prior testimony did not bear the required “indicia of reliability”; in fact, her testimony was quite unreliable. Therefore, admission of her testimony also violated the second requirement of Roberts as well.
I would reverse.

. In Barber, the Court stated: "A preliminary hearing is ordinarily a much less searching exploration into the merits of a case than a trial, simply because its function is the more limited one of determining whether probable cause exists to hold the accused for trial.” Barber v. Page, 380 U.S. at 725, 88 S.Ct. at 1322.