United States v. Nobles 8212 634

• Decision Date: 23 June 1975
• Docket Number: No. 74,74
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. Robert Lee NOBLES. —634
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

422 U.S. 225

95 S.Ct. 2160

45 L.Ed.2d 141

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v Robert Lee NOBLES.

No. 74—634.

Argued April 23, 1975.

Decided June 23, 1975.

Syllabus

During respondent's federal criminal trial, which resulted in a conviction, defense counsel sought to impeach the credibility of key prosecution witnesses by testimony of a defense investigator regarding statements previously obtained from the witnesses by the investigator. When the investigator was called as a witness, the District Court stated that a copy of the investigator's report, inspected and edited by the court in camera so as to excise references to matters not relevant to such statements, would have to be submitted to the prosecution for inspection at the completion of the investigator's testimony. When defense counsel said he did not intend to produce the report, the court ruled that the investigator could not testify about his interviews with the witnesses. The Court of Appeals, considering such ruling to be reversible error, held that both the Fifth Amendment and Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 16 prohibited the disclosure condition imposed. Held:

1. In a proper case, the prosecution, as well as the defense, can invoke the federal judiciary's inherent power to require production of previously recorded witness statements that facilitate full disclosure of all the relevant facts. Here the investigator's report might provide critical insight into the issues of credibility that the investigator's testimony would raise and hence was highly relevant to such issues. Pp. 230-232.

2. The Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, being personal to the defendant, does not extend to the testimony or statements of third parties called as witnesses at trial. In this instance the fact that the statements of third parties were elicited by a defense investigator on respondent's behalf does not convert them into respondent's personal communications, and requiring their production would in no sense compel respondent to be a witness against himself or extort communications from him. Pp. 233-234.

3. Rule 16, whose language and history both indicate that it addresses only pretrial discovery, imposes no constraint on the District Court's power to condition the impeachment testimony of respondent's witness on the production of the relevant portions of his report. The fact that the Rule incorporates the Jencks Act limitation shows no contrary intent and does not convert the Rule into a general limitation on the trial court's broad discretion as to evidentiary questions at trial. Pp. 234-236.

4. The qualified privilege derived from the attorney work-product doctrine is not available to prevent disclosure of the investigative report, since respondent, by electing to present the investigator as a witness, waived the privilege with respect to matters covered in his testimony. Pp. 236-240.

5. It was within the District Court's discretion to assure that the jury would hear the investigator's full testimony rather than a truncated portion favorable to respondent, and the court's ruling, contrary to respondent's contention, did not deprive him of the Sixth Amendment rights to compulsory process and cross-examination. That Amendment does not confer the right to present testimony free from the legitimate demands of the adversarial system and cannot be invoked as a justification for presenting what might have been a half-truth. Pp. 240-241.

501 F.2d 146, reversed.

Paul L. Friedman, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Nicholas R. Allis, Los Angeles, Cal., for respondent.

Mr. Justice POWELL delivered the opinion of the Court.

In a criminal trial, defense counsel sought to impeach the credibility of key prosecution witnesses by testimony of a defense investigator regarding statements previously obtained from the witnesses by the investigator. The question presented here is whether in these circumstances a federal trial court may compel the defense to reveal the relevant portions of the investigator's report for the prosecution's use in cross-examining him. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that it cannot. 501 F.2d 146. We granted certiorari, 419 U.S. 1120, 95 S.Ct. 801, 42 L.Ed.2d 819 (1975), and now reverse.

I

Respondent was tried and convicted on charges arising from an armed robbery of a federally insured bank. The only significant evidence linking him to the crime was the identification testimony of two witnesses, a bank teller and a salesman who was in the bank during the robbery.¹ Respondent offered an alibi but, as the Court of Appeals recognized, 501 F.2d, at 150, his strongest defense centered around attempts to discredit these eyewitnesses. Defense efforts to impeach them gave rise to the events that led to this decision.

In the course of preparing respondent's defense, an investigator for the defense interviewed both witnesses and preserved the essence of those conversations in a written report. When the witnesses testified for the prosecution, respondent's counsel relied on the report in conducting their cross-examination. Counsel asked the bank teller whether he recalled having told the investigator that he had seen only the back of the man he identified as respondent. The witness replied that he did not remember making such a statement. He was allowed, despite defense counsel's initial objection, to refresh his recollection by referring to a portion of the investigator's report. The prosecutor also was allowed to see briefly the relevant portion of the report.² The witness thereafter testified that although the report indicated that he told the investigator he had seen only respondent's back, he in fact had seen more than that and continued to insist that respondent was the bank robber.

The other witness acknowledged on cross-examination that he too had spoken to the defense investigator. Respondent's counsel twice inquired whether he told the investigator that 'all blacks looked alike' to him, and in each instance the witness denied having made such a statement. The prosecution again sought inspection of the relevant portion of the investigator's report, and respondent's counsel again objected. The court declined to order disclosure at that time, but ruled that it would be required if the investigator testified as to the witnesses' alleged statements from the witness stand.³ The court further advised that it would examine the investigator's report in camera and would excise all reference to matters not relevant to the precise statements at issue.

After the prosecution completed its case, respondent called the investigator as a defense witness. The court reiterated that a copy of the report, inspected and edited in camera, would have to be submitted to Government counsel at the completion of the investigator's impeachment testimony. When respondent's counsel stated that he did not intend to produce the report, the court ruled that the investigator would not be allowed to testify about his interviews with the witnesses.⁴

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit while acknowledging that the trial court's ruling constituted a 'very limited and seemingly judicious restriction,' 501 F.2d, at 151, nevertheless considered it reversible error. Citing United States v. Wright, 160 U.S.App.D.C. 57, 68, 489 F.2d 1181, 1192 (1973), the court found that the Fifth Amendment prohibited the disclosure condition imposed in this case. The court further held that Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 16, while framed exclusively in terms of pretrial discovery, precluded prosecutorial discovery at trial as well. 501 F.2d, at 157; accord, United States v. Wright, supra, at 66—67, 489 F.2d, at 1190—1191. In each respect, we think the court erred.

II

The dual aim of our criminal justice system is 'that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer,' Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 633, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935). To this end, we have placed our confidence in the adversary system, entrusting to it the primary responsibility for developing relevant facts on which a determination of guilt or innocence can be made. See United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 3108, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974); Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 82, 90 S.Ct. 1893, 1896, 26 L.Ed.2d 446 (1970); Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 234, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1454, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting).

While the adversary system depends primarily on the parties for the presentation and exploration of relevant facts, the judiciary is not limited to the role of a reference or supervisor. Its compulsory processes stand available to require the presentation of evidence in court or before a grand jury. United States v. Nixon, supra; Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 443—444, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 1655—1656, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972); Murphy v. Waterfront Comm'n, 378 U.S. 52, 93—94, 84 S.Ct. 1594, 1610 1611, 12 L.Ed.2d 678 (1964) (White, J., concurring). As we recently observed in United States v. Nixon, supra, 418 U.S., at 709, 94 S.Ct., at 3108:

'We have elected to employ an adversary system of criminal justice in which the parties contest all issues before a court of law. The need to develop all relevant facts in the adversary system is both fundamental and comprehensive. The ends of criminal justice would be defeated if judgments were to be founded on a partial or speculative presentation of the facts. The very integrity of the judicial system and public confidence in the system depend on full disclosure of all the facts, within the framework of the rules of evidence. To ensure that justice is done, it is imperative to the function of courts that compulsory process be available for the production of evidence needed either by the prosecution or by the defense.'

Decisions of this Court repeatedly have recognized the federal judiciary's inherent power to require the prosecution to produce the previously recorded statements of its...