Van Arsdall v. State

• Decision Date: 15 October 1986
• Citation: 524 A.2d 3
• Parties: Robert E. VAN ARSDALL, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. . Submitted on Reargument:
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 3

524 A.2d 3

Robert E. VAN ARSDALL, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted on Reargument: Oct. 15, 1986.

Decided: April 20, 1987.

On remand from the United States Supreme Court. Reversed.

William N. Nicholas (argued), of Vaughn & Nicholas, Dover, for appellant.

Richard E. Fairbanks, Jr. (argued), Chief of the Appeals Division, Wilmington, and Gary A. Myers, Deputy Atty. Gen., Georgetown, Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, for appellee.

Gary W. Aber, Esquire, of Heiman & Aber, Wilmington, amicus curiae.

Before CHRISTIE, C.J., and MOORE and WALSH, JJ.

CHRISTIE, Chief Justice:

Robert Van Arsdall was convicted of murder first degree as a result of a jury trial in Superior Court which was held in September 1982. This Court reversed his conviction, ruling that his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him had been violated, and that the violation required reversal without inquiry into its prejudicial effect. Van Arsdall v. State, Del.Supr., 486 A.2d 1 (1984). On application by the State, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and subsequently vacated our decision. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). The Supreme Court found that there had been a violation of the defendant's confrontation rights under the United States Constitution, but held that the error did not necessarily require reversal of the conviction since the error was subject to the harmless-error analysis set forth in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S., at ----, 106 S.Ct., at 1438. On remand, we focus solely on the defendant's rights under the Delaware constitution and other State law. Because the conviction must be set aside under the law of Delaware, we do not reach the corresponding issues raised under federal law.

I

The evidence presented at trial revealed the following sequence of events. The killing occurred in Smyrna after a New Year's Eve party which began early in the afternoon of December 31, 1981, and had ended at about 10:30 p.m. The party had taken place in and between the adjacent apartments of Robert Fleetwood and Daniel Pregent. Pregent had become violent at several times during the party and had kicked and punched holes in a plasterboard wall upon being physically restrained by a guest.

Van Arsdall, who had visited the party briefly on two occasions earlier in the day, returned to Pregent's second-floor apartment by way of a back staircase at about 11:30 that night. Inside the apartment at that time were Pregent and Doris Epps, the victim, who was then asleep on a folded-out sofa bed. Across the hall in Fleetwood's apartment were Fleetwood and two other persons who had been at the party, Alice Meinier and Mark Mood.

At about 1:00 a.m. on January 1st, Alice Meinier answered a knock at the door of Fleetwood's apartment and encountered Van Arsdall. His shirt was splattered with blood and he was holding a bloody kitchen knife in his hand. Van Arsdall stated that he had been in a fight, but that he had "got them back." After entering Fleetwood's apartment and allowing Mood to take the knife from him, he said, "There's something wrong across the hall." Meinier then looked into Pregent's apartment and saw the body of the victim.

When the police arrived a few minutes later, they found the victim's mutilated body on the kitchen floor. The floor and surrounding furnishings were splashed with blood and tissue. Blood smears extended from the kitchen to the sofa bed in the next room. The police found Pregent asleep, wrapped in a blanket on the blood-drenched sofa bed.

Both Van Arsdall and Pregent were arrested and charged with murder.

In the early morning of January 1st, Van Arsdall gave a statement to the police in which he indicated that he had stepped out of the apartment and was not present when the killing occurred. Two days later, he recanted much of his earlier statement and told the police that he had lied to cover up for Pregent. In his second statement, Van Arsdall stated that he had fallen asleep on cushions at the foot of the sofa bed and was awakened when Pregent dragged the victim's body past him into the kitchen. He stated that Pregent had then started "cutting on her," and that he had tried to pull Pregent away, but Pregent had knocked him down.

At the trial of Van Arsdall, the State's case proceeded on the theory that Van Arsdall either killed Epps alone or he had assisted Pregent in killing her. The State relied heavily on the testimony of a forensic expert, Dr. Lee. Based on his examination of the blood patterns on Van Arsdall's clothing, Dr. Lee testified that the evidence was consistent with Van Arsdall having been in a standing position facing the victim's profusely bleeding arterial wound. Based on the blood on Pregent's furniture and floor, Dr. Lee was of the opinion that Van Arsdall initially stabbed Epps while the two of them stood near the sofa bed, and that Van Arsdall then dragged her into the kitchen where more wounds were inflicted. The blood on Pregent's clothing seemed to indicate lesser contacts with the source of the blood.

Fleetwood was the tenth of sixteen witnesses called by the prosecution. After describing the party including Pregent's violent outbursts, he stated that at about 11:30 p.m. he poked his head inside the door of Pregent's apartment and saw Van Arsdall sitting on the edge of the sofa bed next to Pregent's feet. On cross-examination, defense counsel sought to question Fleetwood about a public drunkenness charge against him which had been dropped shortly before trial. When the prosecutor objected on relevancy grounds, Fleetwood was questioned about the issue outside the presence of the jury. Fleetwood then testified that he understood that the charge against him had been dropped after he promised to appear the next day in the prosecutor's office to discuss the Epps murder. The trial judge sustained the objection to questioning Fleetwood on this subject before the jury and ultimately barred all cross-examination the defense tried to take as to Fleetwood's possible bias. ¹

Van Arsdall was the only witness for the defense. His testimony was consistent for the most part with his second statement to the police, in which he declared that Pregent was the only one who attacked the victim, and that he, Van Arsdall, became bloody when he tried to stop Pregent. The jury found Van Arsdall guilty as charged. At a later trial, Pregent was acquitted.

On appeal, this Court held that the restriction of bias cross-examination of Fleetwood concerning the drunkenness charge violated the defendant's right to confront the witnesses against him, a right secured both by the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, § 7 of the Delaware constitution. Van Arsdall v. State, 486 A.2d, at 6. Citing both state and federal decisions, we also ruled that "a blanket prohibition against exploring potential bias through cross-examination" was reversible error per se, "without inquiry into the actual prejudicial impact of the error." Id. at 7.

As indicated earlier, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, 473 U.S. 923, 105 S.Ct. 3552, 87 L.Ed.2d 674 (1985), and vacated our judgment. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 106 S.Ct. 1431. The Supreme Court assumed that our decision rested on federal law because it lacked a "plain statement" to the contrary. Id., at ----, n. 3, 106 S.Ct., at 1435, n. 3. The Court found that the trial judge's ruling which had prevented cross-examination relevant to bias did in fact violate the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ² but held that federal law did not require automatic reversal. Instead, the Court ruled that "the constitutionally improper denial of a defendant's opportunity to impeach a witness for bias, like other confrontation clause violations, is subject to Chapman harmless-error analysis." Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S., at ----, 106 S.Ct., at 1438.

On remand to this Court the State contends that the trial court's error was harmless under the analysis of Chapman. Defendant argues that the confrontation clause of article I, § 7 of the State constitution requires automatic reversal, and that, in any event, the error was not harmless. Amicus contends that the "judgment of his peers" clause of article I, § 7 of the State constitution requires automatic reversal, and further urges this Court to rule that, henceforth, attorneys and courts in Delaware must address State constitutional issues prior to federal constitutional issues.

We hold that the error was a violation of Delaware law and that, under Delaware law and the circumstances of this case, the error was not harmless. We do not hold that a reversal of the conviction is automatic under State law whenever cross-examination on bias is improperly restricted, and while we cite significant rulings of federal courts we do not base our decision on federal law. We also do not choose to set forth at this time a rule of procedure requiring a particular sequence of analysis with respect to issues arguably controlled by the State or Federal constitutions.

II

The Delaware constitution guarantees that an accused shall have the right to "meet the witnesses in their examination face to face." Del. Const., art. I, § 7. ³ This right necessarily includes the right to cross-examine; indeed, "the main and essential purpose of confrontation is to secure for the opponent the opportunity of cross-examination." 5 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 1395 (3rd ed. 1940) (emphasis in original). The bias of a witness is subject to exploration at trial and is "always relevant as discrediting the witness and affecting the weight of his testimony." 3A J. Wigmore, Evidence, § 940 (Chadbourn rev.1970). Cross-examination on bias is an essential element of the right...