Coates v. United States
| Decision Date | 12 May 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-1236.,87-1236. |
| Citation | 558 A.2d 1148 |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
| Parties | William R. COATES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
Karen L. Hochstein, Washington, D.C., for appellant.
Gregory E. Jackson, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty. and Michael W. Farrell, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before FERREN, BELSON and SCHWELB, Associate Judges.
Coates appeals from his convictions of kidnapping while armed, D.C.Code §§ 22-2101, 3202 (1981), rape while armed, §§ 22-2801, 3202, sodomy, § 22-3502 and armed robbery, §§ 22-2901, 3202. He contends that the trial judge committed reversible error by declining to advise the jury in timely fashion that his prior convictions could be considered only in connection with his credibility as a witness and by refusing to admit expert testimony regarding the effects of PCP on the recollection of those who abuse it. We affirm.
The case arose out of the armed kidnapping, rape and robbery of Nadine Hughes by Coates and his codefendant Paul A. McClaine. The principal issue at trial was whether Ms. Hughes had been forcibly abducted, robbed of a diamond ring, and compelled to engage in various sexual acts or whether the socialization and sexual activity were consensual. Both sides agreed that Ms. Hughes encountered the defendants when she was attempting to make a street purchase of unlawful drugs, and that all three parties smoked some marijuana laced with PCP. In other respects, the accounts varied widely, but the jury obviously believed Ms. Hughes. The sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict is not, nor could it reasonably be, challenged.
Coates took the witness stand in his own defense. While he was testifying on direct examination, his counsel elicited from him his prior convictions. He did so "in order to draw the sting from the inevitable impeachment on cross-examination." See Beale v. United States, 465 A.2d 796, 800 (D.C.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1030, 104 S.Ct. 1293, 79 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Counsel then asked for an immediate instruction to the effect that the convictions could be considered solely in connection with the defendant's credibility. See District of Columbia Criminal Jury Instruction No. 1.08 (3d ed. 1978).
The judge declined to give the instruction at that time, observing that Coates had not yet been impeached. He stated that the instruction would be given at the conclusion of Coates' testimony. After the direct examination had been completed, Coates' attorney said he was not going to request the impeachment instruction. The judge eventually gave the instruction when Coates was impeached with his prior convictions during cross-examination.
The judge later acknowledged that he should have given the impeachment instruction at the time it was initially requested. See Kitt v. United States, 379 A.2d 973, 975 (D.C.1977). He offered to correct the error by advising the jury that the instruction that the prior convictions could be considered solely in connection with Coates' credibility applied to their disclosure during the direct examination as well as to their mention during cross-examination. Defense counsel, however, declined the offer. Counsel did not move for a mistrial, and indicated that he did not intend to pursue the issue on appeal. The judge also included the impeachment instruction in his charge to the jury at the close of the case.
Under these circumstances, Coates' argument for reversal is less than convincing. See Tillman v. United States, 96 A.2d 272, 273 (D.C.1953). "We are not persuaded that juries which are properly instructed at the conclusion of a trial1 will generally misapprehend, in the absence of an immediate cautionary instruction during trial, the limited purpose of the prior conviction evidence." Dixon v. United States, 287 A.2d 89, 99 (D.C.), cert. denied, 407 U.S. 926, 92 S.Ct. 2474, 32 L.Ed.2d 813 (1972). As Justice Holmes put it three quarters of a century ago in Graham v. United States, 231 U.S. 474, 481, 34 S.Ct. 148, 152, 58 L.Ed. 319 (1913):
It would be absurd to upset a verdict upon a speculation that the jury did not do their duty and follow the instructions of the court.
We are satisfied that the judge did all that he could to undo any mischief that could have resulted from the delay in giving the impeachment instruction, that the defense declined his offer to take any additional remedial steps, and that the delay in any event did not substantially affect the jury's decision. Kitt, supra, 379 A.2d at 975.
Ms. Hughes acknowledged that she took two puffs of a marijuana cigarette laced with PCP. Coates testified that he and Ms. Hughes were both "high" during what he described as their consensual sexual activity, but that thereafter she acted "hyper" and "paranoid." Claiming that PCP sometimes made him violent and impaired his memory, Coates sought to adduce expert testimony concerning the effects of PCP on abusers of the drug as a group in order to show that Ms. Hughes' perception and memory were probably impaired. His counsel proffered the testimony of Victor Cohn, a professor of pharmacology at George Washington University.
Outside the presence of the jury, Professor Cohn testified that he had done considerable work on PCP while serving with the National Institute of Drug Abuse, although his direct observation of abusers of the drug was limited to examination of videotapes of approximately a dozen of them. The trial judge found Professor Cohn's expertise in the general area sufficient, but questioned the admissibility of the proffered evidence. Accordingly, Professor Cohn's proposed testimony was explored in detail during the course of a comprehensive voir dire.
Professor Cohn testified that PCP interferes with the way the brain processes information which it receives from the various senses. As a result, people sometimes feel that they are not in touch with reality and experience a sensation of "floating in air." He related that the drug may impair memory to the point of amnesia, so that users often have no recollection, after the effects of the drug have worn off, of anything that took place while they were under the influence of the PCP. He testified that PCP may generate some sense of confusion, leading to delusional and paranoid behavior. According to Professor Cohn, users may act in a very violent and irrational way following use of the drug.2
Professor Cohn acknowledged, however, that the effect of PCP on a given person is "very unpredictable." Judge Walton questioned him on the subject, and received the following responses:
There are some things, however, that I think are probably constant in terms of the sense that the drug has its basic mechanism of action in disrupting normal thought processes and in disrupting the interpretation of information coming into the brain, how the brain processes that.
What is variable is the extent of the behavioral things that ensue from that; does that make sense?
THE COURT: Yes, I understand.
Do you feel confident giving a scientific opinion in reference to the use of PCP and what effect it would have on a person, based only upon information from someone indicating that they had smoked PCP, without knowledge as to how strong it was, whether in fact it was PCP, et cetera?
I would defy anybody to make such a prediction [in terms of behavior] unless you got to a dose that actually rendered a person semiconscious or unconscious. . . .
Judge Walton ruled that the evidence as proffered was inadmissible. He concluded that although Professor Cohn was "eminently qualified" in the area of pharmacology, he (the judge) had serious concerns about the witness' expertise on the effect of street drugs on a person's behavior. Based on Professor Cohn's testimony as to "the state of the art,"3 the judge concluded that the witness could not testify with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty as to whether a person previously under the influence of PCP would be unreliable, when no longer under the influence, in relating what occurred during the time that he was intoxicated. Judge Walton indicated that he would permit Professor Cohn to testify if, after talking with Ms. Hughes or her boyfriend about her drug abuse, he could say with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the drug would have impaired her memory of the events in question. The professor was never called to testify.
The trial judge has wide...
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