State v. Scudder

643 N.E.2d 524, 71 Ohio St. 3d 263
Ohio Supreme Court·Decided December 20, 1994·No. No. 92-2565·Published·Cited by 142 cases

Opinions

Douglas, J.

Appellant presents a number of issues for our consideration. (See Appendix, infra.) We have carefully considered appellant’s propositions of law and have reviewed the death sentence for appropriateness and proportionality. Upon review, and for the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals and uphold the sentence of death.

I

R.C. 2929.05 requires this court to review capital cases in a certain manner. However, the statute does not require that we address and discuss, in opinion form, every proposition of law raised by the parties. State v. Poindexter (1988), 36 Ohio St.3d 1, 3, 520 N.E.2d 568, 570; State v. Bonnell (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 179, 181, 573 N.E.2d 1082, 1085; and State v. Hawkins (1993), 66; Ohio St.3d 339, 342, 612 N.E.2d 1227, 1230.

Here, appellant presents a number of arguments which have previously been addressed by this court, and which have been resolved in a manner unfavorable to appellant. Many of the matters raised by appellant merit no discussion given the events at trial and the governing law. Moreover, a number of appellant’s arguments have been waived, since appellant failed to preserve the alleged errors at either the trial court or appellate level. Upon review of appellant’s propositions of law, we fail to detect any errors that would undermine our confidence in the outcome of appellant’s trial. We address in detail only those issues that merit some discussion.

II

Appellant’s trial commenced on October 12, 1990. On October 26, 1990, the prosecutor provided appellant with a fingerprint analysis report concerning fingerprints that had been lifted from appellant’s Buiek in February 1989. On November 1,1990, the state called Everett Justice, a fingerprint expert, to testify for the prosecution. Appellant objected to Justice’s proposed testimony on the basis that the state had not provided appellant with a fingerprint analysis report before trial. Appellant requested that the trial court preclude Justice from testifying regarding the fingerprint evidence. The trial court overruled appellant’s objection and permitted Justice to testify. Appellant never requested a continuance to prepare for Justice’s testimony or to conduct an independent fingerprint analysis.

Additionally, appellant was not specifically informed before trial that Dr. Robin Cotton, the state’s DNA expert, would be called to testify at trial concerning DNA frequency estimates. Several months before trial, appellant had been provided with the state’s DNA report matching appellant’s blood to the blood [268] found on the victim. However, a DNA frequency report had not been prepared until after trial commenced. At trial, Cotton testified that appellant’s blood matched the blood samples found on the victim’s body and clothing. She testified further that the statistical frequency with which appellant’s DNA banding pattern appears in the Caucasian and African-American populations is one in 280,000 and one in 1.3 million, respectively. Appellant did not object to Cotton’s testimony concerning DNA frequency estimates until well after Cotton had testified on direct and cross-examination. Appellant never requested a continuance with respect to the DNA frequency statistics.

Similarly, appellant was not informed before trial that Robert Young, the state’s expert in blood splatter and bloodstain interpretation, would be called to testify for the prosecution. Indeed, Young was not contacted to analyze the photographic evidence taken at the crime scene until after trial commenced. At trial, appellant sought to bar Young from testifying because, among other reasons, the state had not notified appellant of this expert prior to trial. The trial court overruled appellant’s objections. Following a lengthy voir dire of the witness, appellant requested a forty-eight-hour continuance to prepare for Young’s trial testimony. Appellant was granted a continuance in excess of forty-eight hours. Thereafter, Young was permitted to testify as an expert in blood splatter interpretation.

In his first proposition of law, appellant claims that he was deprived of a fair trial because the prosecutor violated the rules of discovery by failing to notify appellant before trial that the state would present expert witnesses concerning blood splatter and fingerprint evidence, and expert testimony concerning DNA frequency estimates. Appellant suggests that the state engaged in “trial by ambush” and that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to exclude the testimony of the state’s “surprise” witnesses. We reject appellant’s arguments for two reasons. First, appellant did not raise these issues in the court of appeals. Thus, his arguments have been waived. Second, appellant has failed to demonstrate that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the witnesses to testify.

Crim.R. 16(E)(3) provides for the regulation of discovery in a criminal case and permits a trial court to exercise discretion in determining the appropriate sanction for a discovery violation. State v. Wiles (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 71, 78, 571 N.E.2d 97, 110; State v. Parson (1983), 6 Ohio St.3d 442, 445, 6 OBR 485, 487, 453 N.E.2d 689, 691; and State v. Edwards (1976), 49 Ohio St.2d 31, 42, 3 O.O.3d 18, 24, 358 N.E.2d 1051, 1059. Crim.R. 16(E)(3) provides that:

“If at any time during the course of the proceedings it is brought to the attention of the court that a party has failed to comply with this rule or with an order issued pursuant to this rule, the court may order such party to permit the [269] discovery or inspection, grant a continuance, or prohibit the party from introducing in evidence the material not disclosed, or it may make such other order as it deems just under the circumstances.”

We have held that where a prosecutor violates Crim.R. 16 by failing to provide the name of a witness, a trial court does not abuse its discretion in allowing the witness to testify where the record fails to disclose (1) a willful violation of the rule, (2) that foreknowledge would have benefited the accused in the preparation of his or her defense, or (3) that the accused was unfairly prejudiced. State v. Heinish (1990), 50 Ohio St.3d 231, 553 N.E.2d 1026, syllabus. See, also, Wiles, supra, 59 Ohio St.3d 71, 79, 571 N.E.2d 97, 110; and Parson, supra, 6 Ohio St.3d 442, 6 OBR 485, 453 N.E.2d 689, syllabus. The same tripartite test applies for determining whether a trial court has abused its discretion in admitting other evidence that was not properly disclosed under Crim.R. 16. See, generally, Parson, supra.

In the case at bar, we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the testimony of the various witnesses.

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State v. Scudder, 643 N.E.2d 524, 71 Ohio St. 3d 263 (Ohio 1994).

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