Opinion ID: 1246237
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: impeachment of character or credibility based upon the witness' lack of capacity

Text: It seems to me the majority confuses the capacity and moral components of character impeachment which, as noted, are necessarily subsumed subcategories of character or credibility impeachment. As to the problem of a witness' lack of capacity, there is a chronological split of authority. Some courts would admit and others would exclude evidence of drug usage to impeach credibility based upon incapacity. See 3A J. Wigmore, supra at §§ 931-40. See also cases collected in 3A J. Wigmore, supra at § 934 n. 1; Annot., 52 A.L.R.2d 848 (1957, Supps. 1967, 1973); Comment, 16 S. Calif. L. Rev. 333 (1943). The schism separating the courts may well be a product of the prevailing societal attitude, at the time of trial, concerning drug addiction. Thus, many of the early courts took the position that as a matter of common knowledge [t]he habitual use of opium ... is known to utterly deprave the victim of its use and render him unworthy of belief. State v. Concannon, 25 Wash. 327, 335, 65 P. 534 (1901). Another approach characterized by Wigmore as the dream theory state finds its expression in State v. Fong Loon, 29 Idaho 248, 258, 158 P. 233 (1916), The habit of lying comes doubtless from the fact that the users of those narcotics pass the greater part of their lives in an unreal world, and thus become unable to distinguish between images and facts, between illusions and realities. Many of the early courts based their opinion that drug usage necessarily led to pathological lying upon contemporary and ostensibly competent medical authority. See, e.g., State v. Fong Loon, supra ; Effinger v. Effinger, 48 Nev. 205, 228 P. 615, 239 P. 801 (1925). See also Wharton & Stille, Medical Jurisprudence § 1111 (5th ed. 1905). However, time and the healing arts change, and mendacity or truthtelling as an inevitable consequence of drug addiction is no longer a medical truism. See generally Note, Testimonial Reliability of Drug Addicts, 35 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 259 (1960); Note, 1966 Utah L. Rev. 742. The landmark case of Kelly v. Maryland Cas. Co., 45 F.2d 782 (W.D. Va. 1929), aff'd, 45 F.2d 788 (4th Cir.1930), is the progenitor of the modern line of authority which rejects the contention that drug addiction, in itself, ineluctably yields untruthfulness. In a scholarly opinion, the Kelly court would, however, follow the suggestion of Wigmore and allow expert testimony to establish the possible impairment of a witness' faculties through drug use. The decision of when to allow expert testimony bearing upon truth or veracity was squarely faced by the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Williams, 6 N.Y.2d 18, 159 N.E.2d 549, cert. denied, 361 U.S. 920, 4 L.Ed.2d 188, 80 S.Ct. 266 (1959). In Williams, the New York court surveyed the current medical literature in a well-reasoned decision and concluded: [I]t is only after long and serious deliberation that we hold inadmissible expert testimony that narcotics addicts of the same type as a witness are unworthy of belief in the absence of a clear and convincing showing to the full satisfaction of the Trial Judge that such is the consensus of medical and scientific opinion. The reliability of such a thesis must be clearly established before a jury may be subjected to its influence. People v. Williams, supra at 26. Thus, synthesizing the salient reasoning of the Kelly and Williams courts, I concur with the majority that the better rule is to allow expert testimony relating to the effects of drug usage when it involves the impairment of the witness' faculties. [4]