Title: Kennard v. State
Citation: 531 So. 2d 934
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: September 5, 1986

531 So. 2d 934 (1986)
Ex Parte: State of Alabama.
(Re: Alvin KENNARD
v.
STATE of Alabama).
85-435.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
September 5, 1986.
Rehearing Denied May 8, 1987.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and J. Anthony McLain and James F. Hampton, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., for petitioner.
*935 Stan Brobston, Bessemer, for respondent.
ADAMS, Justice.
This Court granted the State's petition for writ of certiorari to decide the following issue:
Whether the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly decided that the trial court erred by allowing two witnesses to testify about statements made by one alleged to be the defendant's accomplice that incriminated the defendant in the crime, after defendant's counsel had on cross-examination elicited testimony regarding those statements.
We are of the opinion that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred, and we reverse its judgment.
We set out those facts essential for the purpose of review of this issue, noting that the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals Kennard v. State, 531 So. 2d 927 (Ala. Crim.App.1986), recounts the facts in detail.
Defendant Alvin Kennard and Wendall Davis were arrested at the home of Davis's girlfriend, Regina Jones, shortly after a robbery was committed at the Highlands Bakery. Certain incriminating evidence was found at Jones's residence, and Kennard and Davis were charged with the robbery. After his arrest, Davis gave the authorities a statement in which he admitted that he and Kennard robbed the bakery. Kennard was tried and convicted of first degree robbery under Code 1975, § 13A-8-41.
At Kennard's trial, his counsel cross-examined one of the arresting police officers, Sergeant Gwin, as follows:
On redirect examination of Officer Gwin, the prosecutor responded to the above cross-examination by defense counsel with the following line of questioning:
*936 A. Yes, sir, that they went to his girlfriend's house.
During cross-examination by Kennard's counsel, Regina Jones testified in part:
The prosecutor responded to the above testimony with the following line of questioning on redirect examination of Jones:
The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Kennard's conviction, holding that the above statements of Davis, elicited through the testimony of Gwin and Jones, violated Kennard's Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine Davis as recognized in Douglas v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 415, 85 S. Ct. 1074, 13 L. Ed. 2d 934 (1965). The court further held that the doctrine of "curative admissibility" did not allow the admission of the objectionable testimony.
The doctrine of "curative admissibility" is well recognized (See McElroy, Ala. Evid. Vol. 1, § 14.01 and cases noted therein). The line marking the limits of admissibility is somewhat adumbrant. Where no prejudice has occurred, the rule of course should not apply. The illegal rebuttal evidence may be admitted only to the extent that it cures the effect of the admission of the first illegal evidence. Where the first illegal evidence is highly prejudicial, the opponent should be allowed to reply as a matter of right to erase from the minds of the jurors the first illegal evidence.
The State concedes that ordinarily it cannot use the confession of an accomplice as *937 evidence against the defendant where the accomplice is not available for cross-examination. See Douglas v. Alabama, supra. However, the State argues that in the instant case, the questioning by Kennard's counsel was an attempt to use selected portions of Davis's statement to show that it was Davis, and not Kennard, that committed the robbery, and that this use of the statement was prejudicial to the State. Furthermore, the State argues that the objectionable redirect testimony was within the scope of permissible rebuttal to the cross-examination testimony elicited by Kennard's counsel.
We are of the opinion that the ordinarily objectionable redirect testimony brought out by the State through Gwin and Davis falls within the perimeter of the curative admissibility rule. First, the testimony brought out by Kennard's counsel during cross-examination was hearsay not coming within any exception to the hearsay rule, and therefore, not admissible. As stated in Goldsmith v. State, 232 Ala. 436, 437, 168 So. 547, 548 (1936):
It has been held that hearsay of the nature of that in the instant case is not admissible for any purpose other than to test the credibility of the declarant as a witness at trial. McDonald v. State, 165 Ala. 85, 51 So. 629 (1910).
Second, we cannot say that the cross-examination testimony of Gwin and Davis was not prejudicial to the State. It is apparent that the jury could have concluded from this selected testimony that Davis and some other person, not Kennard, committed the robbery. Indeed, this selected testimony supported Kennard's alibi defense.
Third, we are of the opinion that the rebuttal testimony of the State was not excessive.
Richardson v. State, 237 Ala. 11, 12, 186 So. 580, 581 (1938). In R.C. Bottling Co. v. Sorrells, 290 Ala. 187, 189-90, 275 So. 2d 131, 133-34 (1973), Justice Jones noted:
*938 The additional portions of Davis's statements made to Gwin and Jones, and introduced through their testimony, were not indiscriminate evidence of separate or independent subjects, but, rather, evidence that directly contradicted the evidential fact for which defense counsel first introduced portions of Davis's statements. Although the redirect testimony directly touched on the ultimate facts in the prosecution (Kennard's commission of the robbery) and was undoubtedly prejudicial to Kennard's defense, it was within the perimeter established by defense counsel's cross-examination.
The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed, and the cause is remanded to that court.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
TORBERT, C.J., and BEATTY, HOUSTON and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.
MADDOX, JONES, ALMON and SHORES, JJ., dissent.