State v. Robbins

512 S.W.2d 265, 1974 Tenn. LEXIS 479
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 3, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 512 S.W.2d 265 (State v. Robbins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Robbins, 512 S.W.2d 265, 1974 Tenn. LEXIS 479 (Tenn. 1974).

Opinions

OPINION

W. M. LEECH, Special Justice.

Respondent, Reeder Robbins, Jr., was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and his punishment fixed by the jury as confinement for not more than one year in the state penitentiary. A timely appeal in the nature of a writ of error was perfected attacking the validity of the conviction. The Court of Criminal Appeals, with Judge Oliver dissenting, reversed holding that T. C.A. § 59-1049 was violative of the confrontation clause, therefore, allowing evidence to be admitted pursuant thereto was reversible error. We granted the State’s petition for the writ of certiorari so the constitutionality of the foregoing Code section could be determined.

The pertinent facts as ascertained from the record reveal that:

On August 14, 1972, at approximately 7:00 P.M., respondent, while driving his car under the influence of an intoxicant, struck and instantly killed a seventy-nine year old female pedestrian. Prior to striking the decedent, respondent’s car skidded 27 feet, it then went into .a ditch and struck a culvert, came back across the road and finally stopped 142 feet from the decedent’s body which was 39 feet from the point of impact. The weather was clear and the pavement was dry. The first person to reach the scene, a deputy sheriff who witnessed the accident, testified that the respondent was under the influence of an intoxicant and smelled like alcohol. The sheriff also testified that the respondent had been drinking and was staggering at the scene of the accident. The highway patrolman who administered an SM-7 breath test to respondent two and one-half hours after the accident, testified that respondent was intoxicated at the time of the test. In addition to the foregoing testimony, respondent admitted that he drank seven or eight tall cans of beer between 1:00 and 6:00 P.M. on the day of the accident. Moreover, the result of the SM-7 breath test reflected an alcohol concentration level above that which raises the legal presumption of intoxication.

Inasmuch as respondent’s conviction was reversed as a result of the admission into evidence of the results of the SM-7 breath test, it is necessary that the facts related to that test be set out in more detail. Since this was adequately done in Judge Oliver’s dissenting opinion, we shall adopt his statement of those facts as our own. They are as follows:

“[T]he record shows that at the jail following the fatal accident Highway Patrolman John Horton administered an SM-7 breath test (balloon test) to the defendant, to which he consented and agreed after explanation of his rights, and that the samples taken were mailed to the toxicologist’s laboratory in Memphis.
“Dr. Stafford, official custodian of the toxicology laboratory records, testified that according to his records a request for analysis of an SM-7 breath test administered to the defendant was made by John Horton; that Paul Kosko worked in the laboratory and analyzed the specimen taken; that the test results were then certified by the Chief Medical [268]*268Examiner of the State and a copy of the results was sent to the sender; and that the test results showed the alcohol concentration to be .18 per cent. The record Dr. Stafford referred to was a Tennessee Department of Public Health Toxicology Laboratory report form, at the top of which was a request for an analysis of the breath specimen taken from the defendant and at the bottom of which the results of the test was signed by Kosko and certified by the State Chief Medical Examiner, and was admitted as an exhibit in the trial. Dr. Stafford also testified that Kosko was then out of the State, attending medical school in Mississippi.”

The only issue to be considered herein is whether T.C.A. § 59-1049 violates the confrontation clause which is embodied in Article 1, Section 9 of the. Tennessee Constitution and the Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. In order to resolve the foregoing issue, two questions must be answered. First, whether the admission of the results of Kosko’s laboratory testing made him a “witness against” the respondent and second, whether respondent “waived” his right of confrontation.

T.C.A. § 59-1049 provides in pertinent part:

“The certificate provided for in this section shall, when duly attested by the chief medical examiner or his duly appointed representative, be admissible in any court, in any criminal proceeding, as evidence of the facts therein stated, and of the results of such test if the person taking or causing to be taken the specimen and the person performing the test of such specimen shall be available, if subpoenaed as witnesses, upon demand by either party to the cause, or, when unable to appear as witnesses, shall submit a deposition upon demand by either party to the cause.”

The foregoing paragraph allows the certificate to be admitted into evidence only if the following conditions are met:

1. Said certificate is properly attested, and
2. The party taking or causing the taking of the specimen and the party testing the specimen are available to testify.

The second of the two foregoing conditions does not become operative, however, unless either party to the cause demands such. Although it is clear that T.C.A. § 59-1049 does not require the testimony of unconfronted witnesses to be admitted into evidence, but merely allows such evidence to be admitted when the defendant does not object; the question remains whether this violates the confrontation clause as has been authoritatively construed by the courts.

In Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S. Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965), the United States Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. However, since that case, the Court has not set out the boundaries of the rule. In fact, the present state of the confrontation clause is one of chaos. See, e. g., Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S.Ct. 210, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970); Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968); California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 26 L. Ed.2d 489 (1970); Barber v. Page, 390 U. S. 719, 88 S.Ct. 1318, 20 L.Ed.2d 255 (1968); Douglas v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 415, 85 S.Ct. 1074, 13 L.Ed.2d 934 (1965). Thus, this Court can gain little guidance from the United States Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, having made an exhaustive search for authority that would have a bearing on the outcome of the instant case, we have found the case of United States v. Beasley, 438 F.2d 1279 (6th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 866, 92 S.Ct.

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State v. Robbins
512 S.W.2d 265 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
512 S.W.2d 265, 1974 Tenn. LEXIS 479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-robbins-tenn-1974.