Opinion ID: 1323198
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: alleged impeachment of commonwealth's expert witness

Text: Williams maintains that the court erroneously permitted the Commonwealth to impeach one of its witnesses, the local medical examiner, whose testimony allegedly proved adverse to the Commonwealth. The local medical examiner explained that a bruise may not appear on a body until a day or so after death. Initially he testified that he had seen the body only on Sunday morning and had noticed no bruise at that time. However, on cross-examination, the local medical examiner said he saw the body on the following Monday without noticing hemorrhaging (and therefore bruising). Subsequent direct, redirect, cross-examination, and recross-examination disclosed some equivocation as to the second view, and the Commonwealth's Attorney was permitted on two different occasions to ask him if he was sure of his second visit. The doctor concluded by affirming the second visit. Williams misconceives the situation. Impeachment involves an attack on the credibility of a witness. Evidence offered to impeach the witness cannot be considered for any purpose except that of contradicting the witness. Code § 8.01-403. The questions put to the local medical examiner were simply to resolve an apparent inconsistency in his testimony and introduce his best recollection. Furthermore, one common method of impeachment is to show that the witness has made a statement on some prior occasion inconsistent with the testimony given at trial. Code § 8.01-403; Cassady v. Martin, 220 Va. 1093, 1099, 266 S.E.2d 104, 107 (1980); Neblett v. Hunter, 207 Va. 335, 340, 150 S.E.2d 115, 119 (1966). In this case, the Commonwealth's Attorney was not asking the witness about statements made at some time and place prior to trial, but about his earlier testimony in the trial, and in so doing he was attempting to remove any obscurity, uncertainty, or distortion that may have been created by the cross-examination. Finally, as we noted in Daniels v. Morris, 199 Va. 205, 212, 98 S.E.2d 694, 699 (1957) (quoting, Butler v. Parrocha, 186 Va. 426, 433, 43 S.E.2d 1, 5 (1947)): The trend of Virginia decisions is to relax the strict rules of evidence in the interest of developing the whole truth on all issues. The general rule adopted gives great latitude to the discretion of the trial court as to the order in which witnesses may be called and the manner of their examination. The exercise of this discretion will not be disturbed unless it has been abused or substantial harm has been done to the complaining party. We hold that the trial court did not err in permitting the Commonwealth's Attorney to examine his witness in order to clarify the dates and times the witness saw the body.