Court Opinion

ID: 9462439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:40:50.430632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:35.208358
License: Public Domain

JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge
(specially concurring):
I adhere to both the result and the opinion of Judge Roney for the Court. But echoing the concern of Judge Goldberg, I think that this practice of admitting hearsay evidence having strong incriminating tendencies to establish the basis of the agents’ presence ought to be stopped.
I fully appreciate the concern of this earnest District Judge who candidly revealed he believes that such evidence is necessary so the jury will know why the agents were there and did not, say, happen to just stumble on to something by accident:
. . for instance I allowed evidence to come in here with regards to what an informer told Officer Murray. You will recall that Officer Murray testified that an informant called and told him there is going to be a load of marijuana picked up in a place near Penitas. He gave Officer Murray the license numbers of two automobiles, and he said that one was a Ford car, ’75 Ford I believe he said, and a pickup, and that the men in the Ford would be the owner of the marijuana.
The only reason that I admitted that evidence is to show you why these officers did what they did after they got out there in Penitas because that informer is not here. He cannot be cross examined.”
Tr. 451 (Statement by Judge Garza).
As commendable as is his desire to make the whole trial as meaningful to the jury as possible when damaging and potentially prejudicial facts are thereby revealed, the practice is wrong and cannot be permitted. It not only infects a fair trial to the possible detriment to the accused. It adds just one more factor postponing finality since it invites an appeal with the uncertainty of the outcome as the reviewing Court matches the particular case against precedents pro and con.