Opinion ID: 574323
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Specific Conduct Evidence

Text: 59 Defendant Shutt appeals the trial court's ruling permitting inquiry upon cross-examination concerning the details of his prior conviction. Shutt pleaded guilty in 1983 to charges of attempting to obstruct justice. The conviction stemmed from a prosecution for bank robbery in which Shutt offered a bribe to a police chief in an attempt to have the officer file a false document creating an alibi for the defendant. On direct examination, Shutt's attorney elicited from him the fact that he had been previously convicted of attempted obstruction of justice. On cross-examination, the government sought to question Shutt as to some of the specifics of the crime. Relying on United States v. Rosa, 891 F.2d 1063, 1069 (3d Cir.1989), where the court wrote that [b]ribery ... is not the kind of conduct which bears on truthfulness or untruthfulness, Shutt contends that his actions were not the kind bearing on truthfulness or untruthfulness and, since the prior conviction was acknowledged by Shutt on direct examination, the government was not allowed to revisit the issue or to inquire as to details of the crime. 60 The trial court, after hearing arguments outside the presence of the jury, overruled Shutt's objection, holding that Shutt's credibility was at issue and that the specific conduct of attempting to bribe a police officer was relevant to his truthfulness or untruthfulness. The ruling was based upon Fed.R.Evid. 608(b) which permits inquiry on cross-examination into specific instances of conduct bearing on the credibility of a witness if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness. 61 The government's questioning proceeded as follows: 62 Q. Mr. Shutt, Mr. Wyckoff asked you why you pleaded guilty of [sic] the charge of obstruction of justice and you answered because you were guilty, is that correct? 63 A. Yes sir. 64 Q. And at that time in 1982, sir, you were charged in the Western District of Tennessee, were you not, with attempting to obstruct justice by offering Jerry Wyatt, chief of police in Brownsville, Tennessee, a payment of up to $10,000 to Jerry Wyatt if Jerry Wyatt would place a false document in the Brownsville Police Department records showing that David Eugene Graham had been in the Haywood County, Tennessee area on August the 7th of 1979 between nine o'clock and nine-twenty a.m. The purpose of that false document was to create an alibi for David Eugene Graham who was to go on trial two days later on September the 8th of 1982 in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee, that is in Chattanooga, in which David Graham had been charged with bank robbery which had occurred on August the 7th, 1979. And that was the basis for your obstruction of justice charge, wasn't it, sir? 65 Immediately after defendant Shutt affirmed the correctness of the allegation contained in the indictment, the court instructed the jury as follows: 66 Now, ladies and gentlemen, you'll consider this evidence that you've just heard concerning the facts related to Mr. Shutt's prior conviction solely as it bears on the issue of his credibility which is for you to judge, that is his truthfulness or untruthfulness, and it's for that limited purpose solely that you are to consider this testimony. As I say, as it bears on his--the issue of his credibility. 67 You're not to consider this evidence for the purpose of any propensity, having committed one crime that he would commit another; that is you're not to decide this case on some kind of bad man theory. You clearly understand that. This testimony solely and only goes to the issue of his truthfulness or untruthfulness, that is his question of credibility. You clearly understand that. 68 Whether a specific conduct is probative of the truth and honesty of a witness under Rule 608(b) is a matter within the discretion of the trial court. United States v. Vinson, 606 F.2d 149, 156 (6th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1074, 100 S.Ct. 1020, 62 L.Ed.2d 756 (1980), reh'g denied, 445 U.S. 972, 100 S.Ct. 1668, 64 L.Ed.2d 251 (1980). Where the accused has disclosed a prior conviction, it is not necessarily prejudicial to allow cross-examination developing its circumstances. United States v. Graham, 325 F.2d 922, 927 (6th Cir.1963). In this day in which most guilty pleas are products of plea bargaining, and usually charge bargaining, the statutory name of the offense to which a defendant pleads guilty is rarely informative, and often misinformative, about the nature of the offense to which guilt is acknowledged as the plea allocation. It is often appropriate, indeed necessary, if the fact finder is to be able to evaluate the significance of the prior conviction to the witness' credibility, that some details of the truthfulness-related offense be described. In this case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the specific conduct resulting in Shutt's prior conviction was a relevant consideration as to his veracity or in allowing the prosecution to question Shutt briefly in order to explain the nature of the conviction. The conduct was not merely bribery, as Shutt argues, but subornation of perjury. It was well within the discretion of the trial court to conclude that the conduct was probative of the truthfulness or untruthfulness of the witness. To the extent that the Third Circuit's opinion in Rosa, 891 F.2d at 1069, might be read to suggest that bribery-related offenses are not probative of a witness' truthfulness or untruthfulness in all cases, we disagree. 69 Further, the scope of cross-examination was narrow and brief. The government did not badger the witness, nor did it exhaustively comb the subject. A cautionary instruction was also issued to the jury immediately following this questioning. Thus, not only did the trial court act within its discretion, but Shutt fails to make an adequate showing of prejudice.