State v. BradyState v. Brady
Defendant Vance Brady, Jr., was charged by bill of information with armed robbery on November 14, 1977. Defendant entered a plea of not guilty. Defendant‘s first two trials ended in hung juries. On April 4, 1979, a twelve member jury found defendant guilty of simple robbery.
Charles Brown, a bartender and victim of the crime, was the state‘s only witness. Mr. Brown testified that on October 20, 1977, at approximately 7:00 p. m. two men entered the Devil‘s Dungeon Lounge separately. The men ordered fruit drinks and talked. They asked Mr. Brown, the bartender, if there were any other employees present. Shortly thereafter one of the men grabbed Mr. Brown and announced “This is a stick-up.” Brown was told to lie down on the floor, where he was bound and gagged. The two robbers locked the door, ransacked the bar, and took cash, Brown‘s wallet, and a gun.
All of defendant‘s assignments of error relate to defendant‘s attempt to question Mr. Brown about a previous arrest of his for intentionally carrying a concealed weapon approximately one year before the trial in this case took place. During cross-examination defense counsel asked Mr. Brown if he had “made a deal with the D.A.” in return for his testimony. The state objected at this point in order to prevent the witness from answering the question. The trial judge sustained the state‘s objection and the witness was not required to answer the question.
At a bench conference held shortly thereafter out of the presence of the jury defense counsel renewed his objection to the court‘s ruling and stated for the record his grounds for objecting. Defense counsel stated that Mr. Brown had been charged with intentionally carrying a concealed weapon more than a year before the trial in this case and had forfeited bond; and that the state was delaying action in that case until after the trial of this defendant. He
“When the purpose is to show that in the special case on trial the witness is biased, has an interest, or has been corrupted, it is competent to question him as to any particular fact showing or tending to show such bias, interest or corruption, and unless he distinctly admit such fact, any other witness may be examined to establish the same.”
R.S. 15:492
The trial judge sustained the state‘s objection to the question on the grounds that
“Evidence of conviction of crime, but not of arrest, indictment or prosecution, is admissible for the purpose of impeaching the credibility of the witness, but before evidence of such former conviction can be adduced from any other source than the witness whose credibility is to be impeached, he must have been questioned on cross-examination as to such conviction, and have failed distinctly to admit the same; and no witness, whether he be defendant or not, can be asked on cross-examination whether or not he has ever been indicted or arrested, and can only be questioned as to conviction, and as provided herein.”
R.S. 15:495
On appeal to this Court defendant raises three arguments:
1) The trial judge denied defendant his statutory right of effective cross-examination by refusing to permit him to cross-examine the only state witness concerning a criminal charge pending against the witness in an effort to show that the witness was biased and/or interested in the case being tried. (Assignment of Error No. 1)
2) The trial court‘s refusal to allow the defendant to cross-examine the only witness to testify for the state to show the witness’ bias or interest in the case violated defendant‘s right to confront his accuser guaranteed by the United States and Louisiana Constitutions. (Assignment of Error No. 1)
3) The trial court denied defendant his right to a fair trial by permitting the prosecution to argue that the victim had no interest in the case, after preventing defendant‘s cross-examining the witness on that very matter, his interest in the case. (Assignment of Error No. 2)
We reverse. The trial judge‘s ruling denied defendant his statutory right to question a witness concerning his bias or interest in the case and violated defendant‘s constitutional right of cross-examination (confrontation), there having been no valid statutory or other reason to curtail such cross-examination. The error complained of in defendant‘s second assignment of error (see 3 above) is particularly egregious because the court‘s permitting the state to argue that its witness had no interest in the case compounded the errors complained of in defendant‘s first assignment of error.
The trial judge‘s ruling missed the point. Defendant‘s attempted cross-examination about the arrest was not for the purpose of impeaching the witness’ general credibility—the arrest was not presented as proof that the witness is not credible because he has an arrest record. If that had been the case the trial court‘s ruling would have been correct. Rather, the focus of defendant‘s questioning was to establish that the district attorney‘s office had leverage over Mr. Brown as a result of the pending charge (or at least that Mr. Brown might have assumed so), a reason why Mr. Brown‘s credibility was or might be suspect in this particular case.
The right to cross-examine witnesses concerning their interest in a case is not only a statutory right, it is a right protected by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and
The trial court‘s ruling prevented the defendant from directly challenging the disinterestedness of the prosecution‘s only witness and prevented the jury from considering relevant information which could have diminished or negated the credibility of the state‘s only witness. We conclude that the limitation of defendant‘s cross-examination was prejudicial to the substantial rights of the accused, both his statutory right to impeach a witness’ credibility by showing bias or interest and his constitutional right to cross-examine a witness against him.
Decree
For the foregoing reasons the conviction and sentence are reversed and the defendant is granted a new trial.
REVERSED; NEW TRIAL ORDERED.