Opinion ID: 1604015
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the trial court denied jackson a fair trial by allowing the state to elicit improper impeachment testimony concerning crimes allegedly committed by defense witness deandre johnson, on august 19, 1991.

Text: Jackson argues that the trial judge erred in allowing the State to impeach the alibi testimony of defense witness DeAndre Johnson, through an officer's rebuttal testimony that agents had made four drug purchases from Johnson the evening of August 19, 1991. Jackson contends that such impeachment is impermissible under M.R.E. 608. Jackson asserts that the State may not call a witness to testify concerning specific instances of alleged criminal conduct on the part of another witness for impeachment purposes. Mississippi Rule of Evidence 608 provides in part: (b) Specific Instances of Conduct. Specific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting his credibility, other than conviction of crime as provided in rule 609, may not be proved by extrinsic evidence. They may, however, in the discretion of the court, if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness, be inquired into on cross-examination of the witness (1) concerning his character for truthfulness or untruthfulness, or (2) concerning the character for truthfulness or untruthfulness of another witness as to which character the witness being cross-examined has testified. This Court has held that (s)pecific instances of conduct under our Rules of Evidence may not be proved by extrinsic evidence for impeachment purposes; they may only be inquired about on cross-examination.  Lewis v. State, 580 So.2d 1279, 1287 (Miss. 1991) (emphasis added). See also Pinson v. State, 518 So.2d 1220, 1223 (Miss. 1988). In Pinson v. State , the defense offered testimony in a rape trial to impeach the victim's husband. The husband had testified that because of the rape, he was living apart from his wife, and was not living with any other woman. The defense offered testimony that the husband was living with another woman. This Court held that such evidence was not admissible, stating: Specific instances of conduct under our Rules of Evidence may not be proved by extrinsic evidence for impeachment purposes; they may only be inquired about on cross-examination. (The husband) denied seeing any woman other than his wife when he was questioned about it on cross-examination. The defense may go no further. Pinson v. State 518 So.2d at 1223. [1] In the case at bar, the State attempted to impeach a defense witness with extrinsic evidence of specific instances of that witness' conduct, i.e., with testimony by a police officer that Johnson sold drugs to undercover agents the same night as Jackson allegedly committed the crime for which he was being tried. Such attempts at impeachment are clearly forbidden by Rule 608(b). That rule does provide for limited exploration of a witness' conduct, but on cross-examination, not on direct examination or by rebuttal testimony of a third party. This Court has not yet addressed the question of whether the introduction of extrinsic evidence in violation of Rule 608(b) constitutes reversible error. There is authority that such violation is reversible error. See U.S. v. Reed, 715 F.2d 870 (5th Cir.1983) (introduction of extrinsic evidence to prove misconduct which did not result in a conviction was held reversible error). In this case, impermissible impeachment efforts were aimed at only one of the defense's numerous witnesses. Considering the testimony as a whole, we find that the Rule violation did not rise above harmless error. This Court has stated: We are not required to reverse a case based solely upon the showing of an error in evidentiary ruling. A denial of a substantial right of the defendant must have been affected by the evidentiary ruling ... Newsom v. State, 629 So.2d 611, 612 (Miss. 1993). See also Green v. State, 614 So.2d 926, 935 (Miss. 1992); M.R.E. 103(a). Although the trial court erred in allowing improper impeachment testimony, such error, alone, was harmless under the circumstances of this case where only one of the defendant's numerous alibi witnesses was improperly impeached. Jackson was not denied a substantial right by this erroneous ruling standing alone. However, that was not the only error in this case.