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Petitioner was arrested and brought before a state judge for preliminary hearing on a robbery charge. The complaining witness testified but petitioner, who had no counsel, did not cross-examine. Petitioner was later indicated and tried. The witness had moved to another State and the transcript of his testimony at the hearing was introduced over petitioner's objections that he was denied the right of confrontation. He was convicted and the highest state court affirmed. Held:
Orville A. Harlan, by appointment of the Court,
Gilbert J. Pena, Assistant Attorney General of Texas, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Waggoner Carr, Attorney General of Texas, Hawthorne Phillips, First Assistant Attorney General, Stanton Stone, Executive Assistant Attorney General, and Howard M. Fender and Allo B. Crow, Jr., Assistant Attorneys General.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Sixth Amendment provides in part that:
The petitioner Pointer and one Dillard were arrested in Texas and taken before a state judge for a preliminary hearing (in Texas called the "examining trial") on a charge of having robbed Kenneth W. Phillips of $375 "by assault, or violence, or by putting in fear of life or bodily injury," in violation of Texas Penal Code Art. 1408. At this hearing an Assistant District Attorney conducted the prosecution and examined witnesses, but neither of the defendants, both of whom were laymen, had a lawyer. Phillips as chief witness for the State gave his version of the alleged robbery in detail, identifying petitioner as the man who had robbed him at gunpoint. Apparently Dillard tried to cross-examine Phillips but Pointer did not, although Pointer was said to have tried to cross-examine some other witnesses at the hearing. Petitioner was subsequently indicted on a charge of having committed the robbery. Some time before the trial was held, Phillips moved to California. After putting in evidence to show that Phillips had moved and did not intend to return to Texas, the State at the trial offered the transcript of Phillips' testimony given at the preliminary hearing as evidence against petitioner. Petitioner's counsel immediately objected to introduction of the transcript, stating, "Your Honor, we will object to that, as it is a denial of the confrontment of the witnesses against the Defendant."
[380
U.S. 400, 402]
Similar objections were repeatedly made by petitioner's counsel but were overruled by the trial judge, apparently in part because, as the judge viewed it, petitioner had been present at the preliminary hearing and therefore had been "accorded the opportunity of cross examining the witnesses there against him." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest state court to which the case could be taken, affirmed petitioner's conviction, rejecting his contention that use of the transcript to convict him denied him rights guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. 375 S. W. 2d 293. We granted certiorari to consider the important constitutional question the case involves.
In this Court we do not find it necessary to decide one aspect of the question petitioner raises, that is, whether failure to appoint counsel to represent him at the preliminary hearing unconstitutionally denied him the assistance of counsel within the meaning of Gideon v. Wainwright, supra. In making that argument petitioner relies mainly on White v. Maryland,
The Sixth Amendment is a part of what is called our Bill of Rights. In Gideon v. Wainwright, supra, in which this Court held that the Sixth Amendment's right to the assistance of counsel is obligatory upon the States, we did so on the ground that "a provision of the Bill of Rights which is `fundamental and essential to a fair trial' is made obligatory upon the States by the Fourteenth Amendment."
It cannot seriously be doubted at this late date that the right of cross-examination is included in the right of an accused in a criminal case to confront the witnesses against him. And probably no one, certainly no one experienced in the trial of lawsuits, would deny the value of cross-examination in exposing falsehood and bringing out the truth in the trial of a criminal case. See, e. g., 5 Wigmore, Evidence 1367 (3d ed. 1940). The fact that this right appears in the Sixth Amendment of our Bill of Rights reflects the belief of the Framers of those liberties and safeguards that confrontation was a fundamental right essential to a fair trial in a criminal prosecution. Moreover, the decisions of this Court and other courts
*
throughout the years have constantly emphasized the necessity for cross-examination as a protection for defendants in criminal cases. This Court in Kirby v. United States,
We are aware that some cases, particularly West v. Louisiana,
Under this Court's prior decisions, the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of confrontation and cross-examination was unquestionably denied petitioner in this case. As has been pointed out, a major reason underlying the
[380
U.S. 400, 407]
constitutional confrontation rule is to give a defendant charged with crime an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses against him. See, e. g., Dowdell v. United States,
[ Footnote * ] See state and English cases collected in 5 Wigmore, Evidence 1367, 1395 (3d ed. 1940). State constitutional and statutory provisions similar to the Sixth Amendment are collected in 5 Wigmore, supra, 1397, n. 1.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, concurring in the result.
I agree that in the circumstances the admission of the statement in question deprived the petitioner of a right of "confrontation" assured by the Fourteenth Amendment. I cannot subscribe, however, to the constitutional reasoning of the Court.
The Court holds that the right of confrontation guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment in federal criminal trials is carried into state criminal cases by the Fourteenth Amendment. This is another step in the onward march of the long-since discredited "incorporation" doctrine (see, e. g., Fairman, Does the Fourteenth Amendment Incorporate the Bill of Rights? The Original Understanding, 2 Stan. L. Rev. 5 (1949); Frankfurter, Memorandum on "Incorporation" of the Bill of Rights Into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, 78 Harv. L. Rev. 746 (1965)), which for some reason that I have not yet been able to fathom has come into the sunlight in recent years. See, e. g., Mapp v. Ohio,
For me this state judgment must be reversed because a right of confrontation is "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Palko v. Connecticut,
While either of these constitutional approaches brings one to the same end result in this particular case, there is a basic difference between the two in the kind of future constitutional development they portend. The concept of Fourteenth Amendment due process embodied in Palko [380 U.S. 400, 409] and a host of other thoughtful past decisions now rapidly falling into discard, recognizes that our Constitution tolerates, indeed encourages, differences between the methods used to effectuate legitimate federal and state concerns, subject to the requirements of fundamental fairness "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." The philosophy of "incorporation," on the other hand, subordinates all such state differences to the particular requirements of the Federal Bill of Rights (but see Ker v. California, supra, at 34) and increasingly subjects state legal processes to enveloping federal judicial authority. "Selective" incorporation or "absorption" amounts to little more than a diluted form of the full incorporation theory. Whereas it rejects full incorporation because of recognition that not all of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights should be deemed "fundamental," it at the same time ignores the possibility that not all phases of any given guaranty described in the Bill of Rights are necessarily fundamental.
It is too often forgotten in these times that the American federal system is itself constitutionally ordained, that it embodies values profoundly making for lasting liberties in this country, and that its legitimate requirements demand continuing solid recognition in all phases of the work of this Court. The "incorporation" doctrines, whether full blown or selective, are both historically and constitutionally unsound and incompatible with the maintenance of our federal system on even course.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring in the result.
I join in the judgment reversing this conviction, for the reason that the petitioner was denied the opportunity to cross-examine, through counsel, the chief witness for the prosecution. But I do not join in the Court's pronouncement which makes "the Sixth Amendment's right of an accused to confront the witnesses against him . . . obligatory [380 U.S. 400, 410] on the States." That questionable tour de force seems to me entirely unnecessary to the decision of this case, which I think is directly controlled by the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
The right of defense counsel in a criminal case to cross-examine the prosecutor's living witnesses is "[o]ne of the fundamental guarantees of life and liberty,"
1
and "one of the safeguards essential to a fair trial."
2
It is, I think, as indispensable an ingredient as the "right to be tried in a courtroom presided over by a judge."
3
Indeed, this Court has said so this very Term. Turner v. Louisiana,
Here that right was completely denied. Therefore, as the Court correctly points out, we need not consider the case which could be presented if Phillips' statement had been taken at a hearing at which the petitioner's counsel was given a full opportunity to cross-examine. See West v. Louisiana,
[
Footnote 2
] Alford v. United States,
[
Footnote 3
] Rideau v. Louisiana,
[
Footnote 4
] See also In re Murchison,
MR. JUSTICE GOLDBERG, concurring.
I agree with the holding of the Court that "the Sixth Amendment's right of an accused to confront the witnesses against him is . . . a fundamental right and is made obligatory on the States by the Fourteenth Amendment." Ante, at 403. I therefore join in the opinion and judgment of the Court. My Brother HARLAN, while agreeing with the result reached by the Court, deplores the Court's
[380
U.S. 400, 411]
reasoning as "another step in the onward march of the long-since discredited `incorporation' doctrine," ante, at 408. Since I was not on the Court when the incorporation issue was joined, see Adamson v. California,
I need not recapitulate the arguments for or against incorporation whether "total" or "selective." They have been set forth adequately elsewhere.
1
My Brother BLACK'S view of incorporation has never commanded a majority of the Court, though in Adamson it was assented to by four Justices. The Court in its decisions has followed a course whereby certain guarantees "have been taken over from the earlier articles of the federal bill of rights and brought within the Fourteenth Amendment," Palko v. Connecticut,
With all deference to my Brother HARLAN, I cannot agree that this process has "come into the sunlight in recent years." Ante, at 408. Rather, I believe that it has its origins at least as far back as Twining v. New Jersey,
Furthermore, I do not agree with my Brother HARLAN that once a provision of the Bill of Rights has been held applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, it does not apply to the States in full strength. Such a view would have the Fourteenth Amendment apply to the States "only a `watered-down, subjective version of the individual guarantees of the Bill of Rights.'" Malloy v. Hogan, supra, at 10-11. It would allow the States greater latitude than the Federal Government to abridge concededly fundamental liberties protected by the Constitution. While I quite agree with Mr. Justice Brandeis that "[i]t is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a . . . State may . . . serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments," New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann,
Finally, I do not see that my Brother HARLAN'S view would further any legitimate interests of federalism. It would require this Court to intervene in the state judicial process with considerable lack of predictability and with
[380
U.S. 400, 414]
a consequent likelihood of considerable friction. This is well illustrated by the difficulties which were faced and were articulated by the state courts attempting to apply this Court's now discarded rule of Betts v. Brady,
I adhere to and support the process of absorption by means of which the Court holds that certain fundamental guarantees of the Bill of Rights are made obligatory on the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. Although, as this case illustrates, there are differences among members of the Court as to the theory by which the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental liberties of individual citizens, it is noteworthy that there is a large area of agreement, both here and in other cases, that certain basic rights are fundamental - not to be denied the individual by either the state or federal governments under the Constitution. See, e. g., Cantwell v. Connecticut,
[
Footnote 1
] See Adamson v. California, supra, at 59 (concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter); id., at 68 (dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE BLACK); Malloy v. Hogan,
[
Footnote 2
] See, e. g., Gitlow v. New York,
[
Footnote 3
] See Wolf v. Colorado,
[
Footnote 4
] Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Chicago,
[
Footnote 5
] Malloy v. Hogan,
[
Footnote 6
] Robinson v. California,
[
Footnote 7
] Gideon v. Wainwright,
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Citation: 380 U.S. 400
No. 577
Argued: March 15, 1965
Decided: April 05, 1965
Court: United States Supreme Court
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