Comer v. State, 4734
| Decision Date | 11 May 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 4734,4734 |
| Citation | 222 Ark. 156,257 S.W.2d 564 |
| Parties | COMER v. STATE. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
J. Fred Parish, Newport, for appellant.
Tom Gentry, Atty. Gen., Thorp S. Thomas and James L. Sloan, Assts. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
The appellant was convicted of carnal abuse and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for three years. Ark.Stats.1947, § 41-3406. This appeals puts in issue the sufficiency of the State's evidence.
The information charges that Comer had carnal knowledge of his daughter Lorine, a girl under the age of sixteen. Lorine, as a witness for the prosecution, denied having had sexual relations with her father. She admitted that she had signed a statement to the contrary during the prosecuting attorney's investigation of the case, but she declared that her former statement was untrue. The court instructed the jury that the prior statement was admitted for impeachment only and was not to be considered as evidence of the accused's guilt. There was no other evidence that the crime had been committed; so the jury must have disregarded the court's instruction and concluded that Lorine told the truth in the first instance.
We have often held that the prior inconsistent statements of a witness are admissible for impeachment but not as substantive evidence of their truth. Minor v. State, 162 Ark. 136, 258 S.W. 121; Sisson v. State, 168 Ark. 783, 272 S.W. 674. The Attorney General concedes this to be the settled law in Arkansas, but he asks us to overrule our earlier decisions for the reason that an outstanding legal thinker, John H. Wigmore, thought the rule to be unsound. Wigmore on Evidence, § 1018. Wigmore's position was that the prior statement is objectionable as substantive evidence only because it was made out of court and in circumstances when its truth could not be tested by cross-examination. Wigmore believed that the objection lost its force when the witness took the stand and submitted himself to cross-examination. He conceded, however, that the courts have universally taken the orthodox view, which we have followed in the past.
We appreciate the abstract logic of Wigmore's argument, but there are practical objections to adopting his reasoning in its entirety. If a subsequent opportunity for cross-examination converts unsworn hearsay into competent testimony, then an entire accusation, such as a charge of rape, could be fabricated merely by first having the prosecutrix...
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Brown v. State
...court has held that the advantage of certainty in the law should tip the scales in favor of the rule of stare decisis. Comer v. State, 222 Ark. 156, 257 S.W.2d 564 (1953). Sound reason undergirds the established legal principle in issue here, and stare decisis dictates our continued applica......
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Head v. State, CACR 02-999.
...court has held that the advantage of certainty in the law should tip the scales in favor of the rule of stare decisis. Comer v. State, 222 Ark. 156, 257 S.W.2d 564 (1953). Sound reason undergirds the established legal principle in issue here, and stare decisis dictates our continued applica......
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Eddington v. State
...Corene Green but would not have been any substantive evidence as to the whereabouts of Troy Lee Thompson. Our holding in Comer v. State, 222 Ark. 156, 257 S.W.2d 564, is decisive on this point. We there said: 'We have often held that the prior inconsistent statements of a witness are admiss......
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Walker v. Lockhart, LR-C-81-280.
...formerly the rule that inconsistent statements were admissible only for impeachment and not as substantive evidence. Comer v. State, 222 Ark. 156, 257 S.W.2d 564 (1953). That limitation has now been abolished entirely in civil cases and has been similarly abolished in criminal cases when th......