United States v. Laverne Miles Heath

Before ELY and WALLACE, Circuit Judges, and SHARP, District Judge.

Heath was convicted of forging a government welfare check, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 495 . The payee was a deaf mute, claimed to be mentally retarded. The District Court conducted a pre-trial hearing, directed to the question of whether the payee was competent to testify as a witness for the prosecution. After hearing several witnesses testify to the effect that the payee was competent and asking three questions of the payee himself, the judge apparently became convinced that the prospective witness was prima facie competent. The judge thereupon refused the defense attorney’s request to cross-examine the allegedly incompetent witness. This was error. Once having determined to conduct the hearing, the District Court should have permitted the defense to cross-examine, within reasonable limits, the prospective witness claimed to be incompetent.

The above notwithstanding, the defense was allowed full latitude in the cross-examination of the allegedly incompetent witness after the latter had testified as a prosecution witness during the course of the trial. The district judge retained the power, of course,…