Rock v. State

708 S.W.2d 78, 288 Ark. 566, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1860
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 21, 1986
DocketCR 85-215
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 708 S.W.2d 78 (Rock v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rock v. State, 708 S.W.2d 78, 288 Ark. 566, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1860 (Ark. 1986).

Opinion

Steel Hays, Justice.

Appellant was charged with manslaughter for the July 2, 1983 shooting of her husband. She was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment and fined $10,000.

On appeal appellant’s primary argument revolves around a hypnotic session conducted prior to the trial. Appellant could not remember everything about the shooting and without consulting the court nor informing the prosecutor, her attorney hired a psychiatrist to use hypnosis to induce recollection. Before hypnosis was begun, the psychiatrist, Dr. Bettye Back, interviewed appellant for an hour. Included in that interview was appellant’s recollection of the shooting prior to hypnosis. No video or sound recording was made of the pre-hypnotic session, but Dr. Back made handwritten notes of the session.

The trial court ruled testimony of matters recalled by appellant due to hypnosis inadmissible because of its unreliability and because of the effect of hypnosis on cross-examination. Appellant was allowed to testify about things she remembered prior to being subjected to hypnosis, though testimony resulting from post-hypnotic suggestion was excluded. We believe the trial court’s ruling was correct.

I

HYPNOTICALLY REFRESHED TESTIMONY

Appellant makes two arguments relating to the court’s ruling: the hypnotically refreshed testimony should have been admitted, and in the alternative, even assuming that such testimony is inadmissible, the trial court was unduly restrictive of appellant’s testimony.

Divergence of Opinion on Admissibility

Hypnotically refreshed testimony has resulted in a divergence of opinion as to its proper treatment in the courtroom. Most courts agree there is some inherent unreliability in hypnotically refreshed testimony, but disagree as to how that affects admissibility. Some jurisdictions generally admit it, and do not view hypnotism as a matter of scientific procedure, but merely a matter of credibility to be weighed by the trier of fact. See Clark v. State, 379 So.2d 372 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1979); State v. Greer, 609 S.W.2d 423 (Mo. App. 1980); State v. McQueen, 295 N.C. 96, 244 S.E.2d 414 (1978).

A second group of cases recognizes dangers in such testimony and allows it only if certain safeguards have been followed to minimize those dangers. See State v. Hurd, 86 N.J. 525, 432 A.2d 86 (1981); State v. Beachum, 97 N.M. 682, 643 P.2d 246 (1981); State v. Long, 32 Wash. App. 732, 649 P.2d 845 (1982); State v. Armstrong, 110 Wis. 2d 555, 329 N.W.2d 386 (1983).

A third group of cases has found hypnotically refreshed testimony so unreliable the testimony is held inadmissible per se. See People v. Shirley, 31 Cal.3d 18, 181 Cal.Rptr. 243, 641 P.2d 775 (1982); Collins v. Superior Court for the County of Maricopa, 132 Ariz. 180, 644 P.2d 1266 (1982);State v. Collins, 52 Md. App. 186, 447 A.2d 1272 (1982); State v. Mack, 292 N.W.2d 764 (Minn. 1980); People v. Hughes, 59 N.Y.2d 523, 466 N.Y.S.2d 255 (1983); Commonwealth v. Kater, 388 Mass. 519, 447 N.E.2d 1190 (1983). (For a more comprehensive list of citations on the alignment of jurisdictions, see People v. Shirley, supra; Collins v. Sup. Ct., supra; State v. Collins, supra; People v. Guerra, 37 Cal.3d 385, 208 Cal. Rptr. 162, 690 P.2d 635 (1984).)

Current Trend Toward Exclusion

While it was said in State v. Hurd, supra, that a majority of courts have held hypnotically induced testimony admissible, the cases cited for that conclusion are from the previous decade. (Hurd, at p. 91). The more recent trend is toward exclusion of such testimony. McCormick on Evidence § 206 (1984 3d ed.); People v. Shirley, supra; State v. Atwood, 39 Conn. Sup. 273, 479 A.2d 258 (1984). Collins v. Sup. Ct., supra. Typical of this trend is Maryland, which in 1968 permitted the testimony, treating the issue as one of weight rather than admissibility. Harding v. State, 5 Md. App. 230, 246 A.2d 302 (1968). Harding was the leading opinion on this point, yet in 1982 Maryland reversed its position and held that a witness who has been hypnotized may not testify to induced recollections. Polk v. State, 48 Md. App. 382, 427 A.2d 1041 (1981); State v. Collins, supra. McCormick notes that even in those jurisdictions that previously held post-hypnotic testimony generally admissible, there is a trend toward insisting that rigorous safeguards be observed before the hypnotically refreshed memories are admissible, and “[t]he more prevalent view is that testimony about the posthypnotic memories is not admissible.” McCormick, supra at 623.

Courts adopting a rule of exclusion often rely on the test announced in Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), that an expert witness-“may not testify on the basis of scientific methodology unless the principles on which he relies have achieved general acceptance within the scientific community.” Some critics contend that Frye is too strict and will exclude helpful and probative evidence. McCormick, supra § 203; Latin and White, Remote Sensory Evidence and Environmental Law, 64 Cal. L. Rev. 1300 (1976). We do not have to resolve that issue in this case, as we would find the hypnotically refreshed testimony inadmissible by either the Frye test, or some form of it, or by traditional evidentiary concepts. Unif. R. Evid. 403. To this same effect see McCormick, supra at 633.

Expert Opinion

While hypnosis may have gained recognition as an aid to therapy, it has not gained general acceptance as a means of ascertaining truth in the field of forensic law. Cases comprising the recent trend toward exclusion of hypnotically refreshed testimony have examined extensively the expert opinions in this field and have concluded that it is inherently unreliable and without sufficient acceptance to allow it in the courtroom. See, People v. Shirley, supra; Collins v. Sup. Ct., supra; Commonwealth v. Kater, supra; State v. Collins, supra; People v. Quintanar, 659 P.2d 710 (Colo. App. 1982); People v. Gonzales, 415 Mich. 615, 329 N.W.2d 743 (1982); People v. Hughes, supra; State v. Peoples, 311 N.C. 515, 319 S.E.2d 177 (1984); Commonwealth v. Nazarovitch, 496 Pa. 97, 436 A.2d 170 (1981); Peterson v. State, 448 N.E.2d 673 (Ind. 1983); Robinson v. State, 677 P.2d 1980 (Okla. Cr. App. 1984); State v. Mack, supra; State v. Atwood, 3 Conn. Sup. 273, 479 A.2d 258 (1984).

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Bluebook (online)
708 S.W.2d 78, 288 Ark. 566, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rock-v-state-ark-1986.