Opinion ID: 1979227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The credibility instruction.

Text: Defendant also objected to Instruction No. 17, which was Iowa Uniform Jury Instruction No. 105 on general credibility of witnesses. He requested trial court should instruct the jury to consider whether a witness was paid as bearing on credibility and to scrutinize testimony of paid informants because they have an interest in the outcome of the case. Trial court overruled defendant's objection and request. Instruction No. 17 informed the jury they were the sole judges of the weight of the evidence and credibility of the witnesses. In addition, the instruction told the jury that in passing on the credibility of witnesses they should consider the means of knowledge of matters of which [the witnesses] speak, ... their interest or lack of interest in the result of the trial, the motives, if any, actuating them as witnesses, their ... bias or prejudice, [and] ... whether their testimony is corroborated or contradicted. We have held `[t]he proper practice is [for the trial court] to give a general [credibility] instruction ... applicable to all witnesses alike.' State v. Harrington, 284 N.W.2d 244, 250 (Iowa 1979) (quoting State v. Milliken, 204 N.W.2d 594, 596-97 (Iowa 1973)). Under the general credibility instruction the jury would consider impeaching evidence in determining the weight accorded to a particular witness' testimony, even though their attention was not specifically drawn to such evidence. Id. At trial, the jury's attention was drawn repeatedly to evidence of Menke's compensation as a paid police informant. Defense counsel aggressively attempted to undermine Menke's credibility by interrogating both Diamond and Menke about payments to the latter for undercover work. This effort, coupled with the court's Instruction No. 17, undoubtedly forced the jury to consider Menke's credibility in determining whether to accept or reject his testimony. We conclude trial court did not err in giving this instruction and in refusing to give the requested instruction.