Siegfriedt v. Fair ( 1992 )


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  • USCA1 Opinion









    December 23, 1992

    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT



    _________________________

    No. 92-1731

    KENT A. SIEGFRIEDT,

    Petitioner, Appellant,

    v.

    MICHAEL FAIR,

    Respondent, Appellee.

    _________________________

    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

    FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

    [Hon. Mark L. Wolf, U.S. District Judge]
    ___________________

    _________________________

    Before

    Selya, Cyr and Boudin, Circuit Judges.
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    _________________________

    Brownlow M. Speer, with whom Committee for Public Counsel
    __________________ _____________________________
    Services was on brief, for appellant.
    ________
    Pamela L. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Scott
    ______________ _____
    Harshbarger, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellee.
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    _________________________



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    SELYA, Circuit Judge. Petitioner-appellant Kent A.
    SELYA, Circuit Judge.
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    Siegfriedt seeks appellate review of an order of the United

    States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

    dismissing his application for habeas relief. See 28 U.S.C.
    ___

    2241-2254 (1988). The issue presented on appeal is nominal in

    the classic sense. We must determine whether the admission at

    trial of an unavailable witness's tape-recorded testimony,

    originally adduced at a probable cause hearing, violated the

    defendant's constitutional rights because the witness testified

    under a pseudonym. Finding no constitutional shortfall, we

    affirm.

    I.
    I.
    __

    Background
    Background
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    Because the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)

    has painstakingly traced the lay of the land, see Commonwealth v.
    ___ ____________

    Siegfriedt, 402 Mass. 424, 522 N.E.2d 970 (1988), it would be
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    pleonastic to recount the facts in great detail. We provide

    instead only the bare minimum necessary to place the petitioner's

    appeal into workable perspective.

    Siegfriedt was charged with arson. At the probable

    cause hearing, an individual known as Christopher Martel

    maintained under oath that Siegfriedt forewarned him of the fire

    and accurately predicted its approximate time of outbreak. After

    Martel withstood cross-examination at the hands of petitioner's

    counsel, the court found probable guilt.

    By the time petitioner's case was reached for trial,


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    Martel's whereabouts were a mystery. A diligent search failed to

    locate him but revealed a previously unknown fact: although the

    witness had gone by the name of Christopher Martel, his true name

    was Albert Ciccarelli, Jr. The presiding judge nevertheless

    admitted Martel/Ciccarelli's tape-recorded testimony, originally

    delivered at the probable cause hearing, into evidence at

    petitioner's trial.1 Thereafter, the judge allowed petitioner

    to impeach the declarant's credibility. To that end, petitioner

    called two witnesses, including Martel/Ciccarelli's brother, who

    testified anent the declarant's parlous reputation for veracity.

    The jury found Siegfriedt guilty. The SJC affirmed the

    conviction. Siegfriedt then sought habeas redress. The federal

    district court spurned his application but issued a certificate

    of probable cause under 28 U.S.C. 2253. This appeal ensued.

    II.
    II.
    ___

    Standard of Review
    Standard of Review
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    Petitioner contends here, as he contended

    unsuccessfully below, that his constitutional rights were

    abridged when the state court admitted Martel/Ciccarelli's prior

    recorded testimony into evidence. This contention evokes a mixed

    question of law and fact. Under the presently prevailing

    standard, "mixed" constitutional questions are subject to plenary

    review in federal habeas proceedings. See Chakouian v. Moran,
    ___ _________ _____

    975 F.2d 931, 934 (1st Cir. 1992); see also Miranda v. Cooper,
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    ____________________

    1Siegfriedt's first trial resulted in a hung jury. We refer
    here, and below, only to the second trial, at which petitioner
    was found guilty.

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    967 F.2d 392, 401 (10th Cir.) (affording de novo review to
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    district court's decision concerning adequacy of cross-

    examination in state criminal case), cert. denied, 113 S. Ct. 347
    _____ ______

    (1992). Hence, we scrutinize the denial of petitioner's

    application for habeas corpus without special deference either to

    the district court or to the state courts on the central issue

    raised by this appeal. Withal, we remain "bound by the [state]

    court's interpretation of [its] evidentiary law" so long as the

    record shows "a sufficient factual predicate rationally to

    support" that court's categorization of the contested evidentiary

    proffer. Puleio v. Vose, 830 F.2d 1197, 1204, 1207 (1st Cir.
    ______ ____

    1987) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted), cert.
    _____

    denied, 485 U.S. 990 (1988).
    ______

    III.
    III.
    ____

    Analysis
    Analysis
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    A
    A
    _

    The Confrontation Clause ensures a criminal defendant

    the right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him."

    U.S. Const. amend. VI. This guarantee applies to the States

    through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S.
    ___ _______ _____

    400, 403 (1965). While the guarantee restricts the circumstances

    under which a court may admit the statements of unavailable

    declarants into evidence, the restriction is not an absolute bar

    since the keen "societal interest in accurate factfinding"

    necessarily tempers the sweep of the Confrontation Clause.

    Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 182 (1987). Thus,
    _________ ______________


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    hearsay evidence from an unavailable declarant may survive

    exclusion if the proponent can demonstrate that the proffered

    evidence "bears adequate indicia of reliability." Ohio v.
    ____

    Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66 (1980) (internal quotation marks
    _______

    omitted). Such indicia can be established either by showing that

    the evidence "falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception" or

    by showing that the evidence possesses "particularized guarantees

    of trustworthiness." Id.; accord Idaho v. Wright, 110 S. Ct.
    ___ ______ _____ ______

    3139, 3147 (1990) (collecting cases).

    Former testimony in the same case generally comes

    within a recognized hearsay exception if the declarant is

    unavailable and the party resisting the proffer has had a

    "complete and adequate opportunity to cross-examine." California
    __________

    v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 165-66 (1970) (quoting Pointer, 380 U.S.
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    at 407); see also Mancusi v. Stubbs, 408 U.S. 204, 216 (1972);
    ___ ____ _______ ______

    United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 5-6 (1st Cir.), cert.
    ______________ _______ _____

    denied, 494 U.S. 1082 (1990); cf. Fed. R. Evid. 804(b)(1). Here,
    ______ ___

    the parties agree that the tape recording was generated in the

    same case and comprised the prior testimony of a declarant who

    was genuinely unavailable at the time of trial.2 They disagree,

    however, about the adequacy of the opportunity for cross-

    ____________________

    2The Court recently cast doubt upon the admissibility of
    prior testimony in criminal cases absent a concrete showing of
    the declarant's unavailability. See White v. Illinois, 112 S.
    ___ _____ ________
    Ct. 736, 743 (1992) (suggesting, in dictum, that a showing of
    declarant's unavailability might be necessary to trigger the
    prior testimony exception to the hearsay rule because of the
    constitutional "preference for live testimony"). Given the
    witness's acknowledged unavailability in this case, we need not
    ponder the import of the White dictum.
    _____

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    examination.

    The petitioner claims that, because Martel/Ciccarelli

    testified under an adopted name at the probable cause hearing,

    the opportunity for cross-examination was inadequate as a matter

    of law. This claim derives from the Supreme Court's opinion in

    Smith v. Illinois, 390 U.S. 129 (1968). There, an informant in a
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    drug-trafficking case testified at trial under an assumed name.

    When defense counsel attempted to ascertain the witness's true

    name and address, the trial judge sustained the prosecutor's

    objections. The Supreme Court vacated the ensuing conviction.

    In the Court's view, the trial judge's ruling impermissibly

    interfered with the defendant's right to confrontation because it

    foreclosed "the opportunity to place the witness in his proper

    setting and put . . . his credibility to a test." Id. at 132
    ___

    (citation and quotation marks omitted).

    Petitioner interprets Smith as spawning a bright-line
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    rule a rule which mandates that, whatever nuances may be

    supplied by the surrounding circumstances, testimony given under

    an apocryphal name can never be admitted over objection in a

    criminal trial. But, this interpretation effectively ignores the

    Court's instruction that society's interest in accurate

    factfinding is to be regarded as an important factor in

    Confrontation Clause inquiries. See Bourjaily, 483 U.S. at 182.
    ___ _________

    Accordingly, we decline to read Smith in the wooden fashion
    _____

    petitioner suggests.

    Even before Bourjaily we held that Smith's guiding
    _________ _____


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    principle, insofar as it concerns a witness's current address,

    "is not, like a rule of plane geometry, absolute." McGrath v.
    _______

    Vinzant, 528 F.2d 681, 684 (1st Cir.), cert. dismissed, 426 U.S.
    _______ _____ _________

    902 (1976). In our estimation, the Smith principle, insofar as
    _____

    it concerns a witness's true name, is likewise not absolute.

    Accord United States v. Rangel, 534 F.2d 147, 148 (9th Cir.),
    ______ _____________ ______

    cert. denied, 429 U.S. 854 (1976) (Smith "does not establish a
    _____ ______ _____

    rigid rule of disclosure [of a witness's name], but rather

    discusses disclosure against a background of factors") (citations

    and internal quotation marks omitted).

    The long and short of it is that the Smith standard has
    _____

    a core purpose: to prevent a criminal conviction based on the

    testimony of a witness who remains "a mere shadow" in the

    defendant's mind. McGrath, 528 F.2d at 685. When that core
    _______

    purpose is not implicated, we see no reason for reflexively

    excluding otherwise admissible testimony. Certainly, Smith
    _____

    itself gives no indication that its guiding principle extends

    beyond the confines of its articulated rationale into such far-

    flung galaxies. See Smith, 390 U.S. at 132 (explaining that the
    ___ _____

    defendant must be accorded a fair opportunity to place an adverse

    witness in the witness's proper setting and to put his testimony

    and credibility to a meaningful test).

    Against this backdrop, it is readily apparent that all

    pseudonyms are not equal in the eyes of the Confrontation Clause.

    Rather, courts must gauge the pull of Smith in any given case by
    _____

    the degree to which its rationale applies. Sometimes, as in


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    Smith itself, a witness's use of a fictitious name will transform
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    him into a wraith and thereby thwart the efficacy of cross-

    examination. Other times, the use of a fictitious name will be

    no more than a mere curiosity, possessing no constitutional

    significance.3

    B
    B
    _

    The case at hand is at a substantial remove from Smith.
    _____

    In Smith, unlike here, the witness adopted a pseudonym for the
    _____

    sole purpose of testifying. In Smith, unlike here, the defendant
    _____

    did not know the witness's true identity before the jury returned

    its verdict. In Smith, unlike here, the witness's anonymity was
    _____

    the direct result of government contrivance. We find these

    distinctions more than sufficient to propel this case out of

    Smith's precedential orbit.
    _____

    1. In this situation, the name under which the
    1.

    witness testified (Christopher Martel) was not some passing

    cognominal fancy assumed solely for the purpose of the judicial

    proceeding and bearing no relation to the witness's life outside

    the courthouse. To the contrary, this was a name the witness had

    clasped to his bosom and made his own. He held himself out to


    ____________________

    3Petitioner's insistence upon a bright-line rule, slavishly
    followed, could produce a bizarre anomaly. One can easily
    envision circumstances in which a witness testifying under his
    birth name might present a much more spectral figure than if he
    or she testified under an adopted name. For example, the
    appellations Issur Danielovitch Demsky, Betty Joan Perske, and
    Marion Michael Morrison will probably be of less assistance in
    placing the affected individuals in their proper settings than
    their screen names (Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and John Wayne,
    respectively).

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    the world as Christopher Martel; he was identifiable in

    Siegfriedt's community by that name; and he was known by that

    name at his own address an address which he accurately

    recounted in the course of his testimony. Thus,

    Martel/Ciccarelli was not some incorporeal apparition as was

    his ostensible counterpart in Smith but a flesh-and-blood human
    _____

    being easily placed within his relevant context.

    2. At the probable cause hearing, petitioner was able
    2.

    effectively to question the declarant qua Martel. Moreover,

    because petitioner discovered the witness's true name prior to

    trial, he was able effectively to investigate and impeach the

    declarant qua Ciccarelli. He took full advantage of both these

    opportunities, in the first instance through lengthy cross-

    examination and in the latter instance by calling witnesses to

    debunk the declarant's reputation for truthfulness. The goals of

    Smith's guiding principle placing the witness in his proper
    _____

    setting and putting his credibility to a fair test were

    satisfied. See generally United States v. McLaughlin, 957 F.2d
    ___ _________ _____________ __________

    12, 17 (1st Cir. 1992) (explaining that the main purposes of

    cross-examination are to impeach credibility and to expose a

    witness's biases and possible motives for testifying) (collecting

    cases); see also Clark v. Ricketts, 958 F.2d 851, 855 (9th Cir.
    ___ ____ _____ ________

    1991) (discerning no Confrontation Clause violation despite

    informant's refusal to reveal his name while testifying;

    defendant knew the witness's name before trial and, therefore,

    had an opportunity to conduct both an out-of-court investigation


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    and an in-court examination), cert. denied, 101 S. Ct. 796
    _____ ______

    (1992).

    3. In Smith, the defense failed to learn the witness's
    3. _____

    true name and address because government actors the prosecutor

    and the judge combined to block its access to the witness,

    thereby restricting the scope of cross-examination. Here,

    however, there is no suggestion that the State knew of

    Martel/Ciccarelli's hidden identity at the time of the

    preliminary hearing or that the presiding judge sustained

    objections or otherwise imposed any Smith-related scope
    _____

    restriction on cross-examination. That the cross-examination

    conducted by petitioner's attorney failed to reveal

    Martel/Ciccarelli's birth name was not in any way attributable to

    official conduct.

    We believe that this distinction is significant because

    "the Confrontation Clause guarantees an opportunity for effective
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    cross-examination, not cross-examination that is effective in

    whatever way, and to whatever extent, the defense might wish."

    Delaware v. Fensterer, 474 U.S. 15, 20 (1985) (per curiam). This
    ________ _________

    precept applies even when the witness himself is unequivocally to

    blame for the relative ineffectiveness of the cross-examination.

    See id. at 19 (discussing a situation where a witness's memory
    ___ ___

    lapse prevented him from answering potentially discrediting

    questions). We do not think this precept diminishes in vitality

    simply because the defense's opportunity to cross-examine the

    declarant arises at a preliminary hearing. See, e.g., Roberts,
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    448 U.S. at 73 n.12 (indicating that, under such circumstances,

    "no inquiry into 'effectiveness' is [ordinarily] required").4

    Because petitioner questions the effectiveness of the cross-

    examination rather than an undue, State-imposed limitation on its

    scope, he is hard pressed to contend that Smith requires a
    _____

    reversal here.

    4. When this case is judged by the totality-of-the-
    4.

    circumstances test that proper application of the Smith principle
    _____

    requires, it readily passes constitutional muster.5 We hold,

    therefore, that Martel/Ciccarelli's use of an alias at the

    probable cause hearing did not, without more, render that

    testimony inadmissible at a later proceeding in the same case.

    C
    C

    Once the Smith hurdle is cleared, this case
    _____

    unquestionably meets the Roberts criteria. Apart from
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    Martel/Ciccarelli's unique brand of name-dropping, there is no

    basis for any suggestion that the defense's opportunity for

    cross-examination was incomplete or inadequate. The witness

    testified under oath, before a judge, and in the same case. A

    ____________________

    4The Roberts Court indicated that an exception might lie for
    _______
    extraordinary cases in which defense counsel provided ineffective
    assistance at the earlier hearing. See Roberts, 448 U.S. at 73
    ___ _______
    n.12, In the case at hand, however, appellant has advanced no
    such claim.

    5Although we deem the three main points of divergence
    between this case and Smith, see text supra, to be important, we
    _____ ___ _____
    emphasize that Smith must be applied in a case-specific fashion,
    _____
    having in mind the entire array of circumstances that attend the
    testimonial proffer in any given situation. We do not,
    therefore, assign decretory significance to any single
    distinguishing factor.

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    verbatim record of the proceedings was contemporaneously made.

    The defendant was represented by counsel. His attorney was

    permitted to cross-examine without undue restriction. Under

    these circumstances, we find that the state court appropriately

    classified the tape recording within the hearsay exception for

    prior testimony of an unavailable declarant. See Green, 399 U.S.
    ___ _____

    at 165-66.



    IV.
    IV.
    ___

    Conclusion
    Conclusion
    __________

    We need go no further. With Juliet we ask "What's in a

    name?" and with her we conclude "[t]hat which we call a rose by

    any other name would smell as sweet." W. Shakespeare, Romeo and
    _________

    Juliet, Act II, Sc. ii. Though the State's witness had one legal
    ______

    name, he was not made a phantom to the defense merely because he

    testified at the preliminary hearing under a name he had assumed

    some time previously. The complete and adequate opportunity for

    cross-examination which prevailed at the first hearing, the

    defense's subsequent opportunity, once armed with knowledge of

    the witness's birth name, to put his credibility to the test at

    trial, and the utter absence of State action limiting the scope

    of the defense's cross-questioning, combine to bring the earlier

    testimony well within a firmly rooted hearsay exception.6 The

    ____________________

    6We note in passing that, even apart from whether this
    evidence fell within a firmly rooted hearsay exception, the
    Confrontation Clause would be satisfied so long as the totality
    of the circumstances evinced the requisite guarantees of
    trustworthiness. See Wright, 110 S. Ct. at 3148 (describing
    ___ ______

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    Confrontation Clause was satisfied in petitioner's case. See
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    generally Maryland
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    v. Craig, 110 S. Ct. 3157, 3163 (1990) (discussing the need for
    _____

    "rigorous testing [of a witness] in the context of an adversary

    proceeding" in order to satisfy the imperatives of the Sixth

    Amendment).



    Affirmed.
    Affirmed.
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    ____________________

    test; collecting cases). Although we do not decide the case on
    this ground, we remark the obvious: a strong argument for
    admissibility can be made on this basis, particularly since
    Martel/Ciccarelli appeared at the probable cause hearing without
    the protection of immunity and spoke about matters within his
    personal knowledge. These latter two points are important
    considerations in a trustworthiness inquiry. See Zannino, 895
    ___ _______
    F.2d at 7.

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