Case Name: PEOPLE v. CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1976-11-08
Citations: 72 Mich. App. 172
Docket Number: Docket No. 24451
Parties: PEOPLE v CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON
Judges: Before: R. B. Burns, P. J., and D. E. Holbrook and T. M. Burns, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 72
Pages: 172–175

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON
Opinion op the Court
1. Criminal Law — Silence at Arrest — Evidence—Impeachment.
Silence of an accused at the time of his arrest may not be used against him at trial, except to contradict his assertion that he did make a statement; use against an accused of his silence at arrest is ordinarily reversible error.
2. Criminal Law — Silence at Arrest — Harmless Error — Concealed Weapons.
Admission of evidence that a defendant was silent at the time of arrest, in a trial for carrying a concealed weapon, was harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt where the defendant testified that he had a gun in his possession at the time of arrest.
Dissent by T. M. Burns, J.
3. Criminal Law — Silence at Arrest — Evidence—Reversible Error.
Admission of evidence that a defendant exercised his right to remain silent at the time of his arrest, brought out during a prosecutor’s cross-examination of the defendant, is reversible error where the prosecutor’s inquiry was unnecessary and uninvited and the error is unduly offensive to the maintenance of a sound judicial process.
Appeal from Berrien, Julian E. Hughes, J.
Submitted October 5, 1976, at Grand Rapids.
(Docket No. 24451.)
Decided November 8, 1976.
Christopher Johnson was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon. Defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
References for Points in Headnotes
21 Am Jur 2d, Criminal Law § 354.
21 Am Jur 2d, Criminal Law § 357.
21 Am Jur 2d, Criminal Law § 356.
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, John A. Smietanka, Prosecuting Attorney, and Sally M. Zack, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.
Roger L. Wotila, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for defendant.
Before: R. B. Burns, P. J., and D. E. Holbrook and T. M. Burns, JJ.

Opinion:
R. B. Burns, P. J.
Defendant was convicted by a jury of carrying a concealed weapon in violation of MCLA 750.227; MSA 28.424.
One of the alleged errors raised by the defendant merits discussion.
During the cross-examination of the defendant, the prosecutor established the fact that the defendant had not made any statement to the police at the time of his arrest. This was in violation of People v Bobo, 390 Mich 355; 212 NW2d 190 (1973), which held that a witness's silence at arrest may not be used except to contradict his assertion that he did make a statement.
Ordinarily such a tactic would call for a peremptory reversal. However, the defendant further testified that he had a gun in his possession at the time of his arrest. Therefore, we hold that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Affirmed.
D. E. Holbrook, J., concurred.