People v. Downs
| Citation | 206 N.W.2d 241,45 Mich.App. 130 |
| Decision Date | 22 February 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 3,Docket No. 13200,3 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth G. DOWNS and Robert D. King, Defendants-Appellants |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan (US) |
James R. Neuhard, State Appellate Defender, Detroit, for defendants-appellants.
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., Farrell E. Elliott, Pros. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before LESINSKI, C.J., and J. H. GILLIS and PETERSON, * JJ.
Defendants were convicted by jury of statutory rape. M.C.L.A. § 750.520; M.S.A. § 28.788. The only question of merit on appeal involves cross-examination inquiry into the criminal record of each defendant.
It has been a touchstone of our jurisprudential faith that cross-examination is the Since qua non to test the quality of testimony and thereby permit the trier of fact to give it the weight it deserves. It is not a testing of mere words but of their source; nothing would seem more obvious than that the testimonial word can be assigned weight only with regard to Who has spoken it. 1
The axiom 'What you are speaks louder than what you say', embodies a folk wisdom more venerable than our historically recent common law of evidence. So, Socrates observed that 'a man is as his deeds'. Accordingly, by this commonsense bit of common law, we recognize the peril of accepting without scrutiny the portrait of the witness, drawn in the most favorable image by the art of sponsoring counsel and the witness's own self-esteem. The genuineness of the image, or at least its completeness, must be challenged. The trier of fact should be made to know the capacity of the witness to make an observation, to remember a past event accurately, to be fair, and to be truthful. Bearing on the latter, it has been thought that the character of the witness as evidenced by his respect for law and the rights of others was a relevant area for cross-examination. 2
The right to impeach by showing misdeeds of the witness has been under attack, particularly where the witness is a criminally prosecuted party. So, it has been suggested that such cross-examination exposes the defendant-witness to the risk of prejudice in the eyes of the jury; that the rule 'unconstitutionally chills a defendant's right to take the stand in his own defense'; 3 and that since the impeachment goes to credibility, misdeeds which demonstrate only general lack of character or anti-social traits less than a perjurious state of mind, are not sufficiently relevant to warrant inquiry when weighed against the risk of prejudice against the defendant.
And so the fiction of the honest thief and the prostitute with a heart of gold are removed from the western novel into the respectability of appellate court decisions. They go hand in hand with the further fiction that our great fact-finding institution in which we avow such confidence, our practical and common-sense citizen jury, has no sense of proportion or fairness in hearing the less than saintly witness, but at the same time can well and truly weigh his testimony without knowing if, and how, he lost his wings and halo.
So, the simple test of relevance has been abandoned, and various courts have held that there may be no such inquiry into misdeeds save as confirmed by convictions; that, while a witness may 'explain' his conviction, the prosecution may not; that only felony convictions may be used to impeach; that only convictions indicative of an untruthful propensity may be so used; that there may be no impeachment until the defendant-witness has first offered evidence to support his credibility; 4 and even that there may be no such impeachment whatever. 5 We note that a Federal due process constitutional protection also exists in that convictions constitutionally infirm may not be used for impeachment purposes. Loper v. Beto, 405 U.S. 473, 92 S.Ct. 1014; 31 L.Ed.2d 374 (1972).
In Michigan, we are now committed to limiting misdeed impeachment of the defendant-witness to actual criminal convictions, 6 and to only such convictions as in the trial judge's discretion appropritately balance 'the prejudicial effect of impeachment' against 'the probative relevance of the prior conviction to the issue of credibility'. 7
We are now asked to go the last step and bar such impeachment entirely, following State v. Santiago, 53 Hawaii 254, 492 P.2d 657 (1971). Notwithstanding the eloquent briefs of the defendants herein, we are not so persuaded. We think the limitations already existing on such impeachment by the ordinary tests of relevance, the Luck-Gordon test adopted by People v. Farrar, 36 Mich.App. 294, 193 N.W.2d 363 (1971), and the conviction-only rule of People v. Brocato, 17 Mich.App. 277, 169 N.W.2d 483 (1969), are sufficient to protect the defendant-witness against prejudice. To go farther would effectively permit an accused to be a witness on his own behalf, able to conceal a part of his identity, and secure in the unearned posture of an upright citizen. As to the usefulness to the jury of that part of the identity of the defendant-witness, consider the impeachment of King set out in its entirety in the appendix hereafter. Could his credibility really be judged if this part of his identity were to be concealed from the jury?
The question, then, is whether there was error in the impeachment of the defendants under existing safeguards. In this Pre-Farrar trial, no proper objection was made to the impeachment of King and no objection at all to the impeachment of Downs. The trial judge thus was not asked to anticipate Farrar and exdercise his discretion under the Luck-Gordon rule to consider whether some of the defendants' convictions ought not to be the subject of cross-examination. As a result the jury No objection having been properly made at trial, we do not consider these questions now in the absence of a clear showing that there was a resulting miscarriage of justice. To the contrary, the record clearly sustains the convictions. Other allegations of error are without merit.
heard that Downs had two disorderly convictions in addition to two convictions for breaking and entering, and that King's long record included misdemeanors of questionable relevance. Too, King's non-responsive predilection for saying that he 'got picked up' for a particular offense was in several instances not pursued to insure that there was in fact a conviction, and King himself volunteered a question suggesting that he was somehow associated with a jailbreak.
Affirmed as to both defendants.
APPENDIX
Q. Prior to that time, Mr. King, have you ever been convicted of any other offenses other than traffic?
Q. (by Mr. Elliott): You may answer the question, Mr. King.
A. Yes, I got picked up. Assault and battery.
Q. When was that?
A. I think it was about a month or so before I went to Utah in December.
Q. You were convicted on that?
A. I was found guilty on it.
Q. Other than assault and battery, were you ever convicted?
A. I got picked up on--I think it was last part of '63.
Q. And what was that for?
A. Picked up for breaking and entering.
Q. Is that all?
A. When I got picked up for breaking and entering I went to court. After court we left there, and I was picked up again ten days later on a perjury charge.
Q. Convicted of perjury?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you have any other convictions?
A. Car theft, but that was back in the early '60s.
Q. Was that prior to this perjury charge you're talking about?
A. No, it wasn't.
Q. Pardon?
A. No.
Q. Any others?
A. You mean in Sault, Michigan, or where?
Q. Anywhere?
A. I got picked up in Utah.
Q. When was that?
A. Couple of months before I came back here, I guess.
Q. What was that for?
A. Strong-arm robbery.
Q. Strong-arm robbery?
A. Right.
Q. Did you have any others in the State of Michigan?
A. Pardon?
Q. Did you have any others in the State of Michigan?
A. I got picked up for tickets and driver's license and that.
Q. No, not traffic. Other than traffic?
A. Furnishing to--buying beer for a minor, I got picked...
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