Opinion ID: 1058243
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Disclosure of Criminal Records of Commonwealth Witnesses

Text: Thomas sought pretrial disclosure by the Commonwealth of the criminal records of several witnesses for the Commonwealth, including both adult and juvenile records. She acknowledges that Virginia law does not permit use of juvenile adjudications for the purpose of general impeachment of a witness' veracity on cross-examination, but she maintains that this Court should reconsider the question and hold that it was error in this case not to permit such use. Code § 19.2-269 provides: A person convicted of a felony or perjury shall not be incompetent to testify, but the fact of conviction may be shown in evidence to affect his credit. However, in Kiracofe v. Commonwealth, 198 Va. 833, 844-45, 97 S.E.2d 14, 22 (1957), noting the unique status of a juvenile adjudication, we held that the trial court did not err in refusing to allow a juvenile adjudication to be used to impeach the general credibility of a witness. In the decades since Kiracofe, the United States Supreme Court has held that the Confrontation Clause requires that where pending juvenile proceedings support a defendant's specific effort to show bias or motivation of a prosecution witness to give testimony favorable to the government in a particular case, the policy of privacy for juvenile records must give way to the need for effective cross-examination to show the bias of the witness. Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 320, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974). [A] criminal defendant states a violation of the Confrontation Clause by showing that he was prohibited from engaging in otherwise appropriate cross-examination designed to show a prototypical form of bias on the part of the witness. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 680, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). However, with respect to general conviction impeachment, not intertwined with an effort by the defendant to show bias of a witness in the particular case based upon the circumstances of pending juvenile proceedings, the Confrontation Clause does not require disclosure or admission of juvenile records, [6] and we are not persuaded that a change in our jurisprudence is necessary on this subject and take this opportunity to reaffirm that juvenile adjudications may not be used for impeachment of a witness on the subject of general credibility. Review of Thomas' several motions in limine relating to juvenile records demonstrates that she sought juvenile records as part of general impeachment preparations; bias or motivation was never identified as a justification. Consequently, it is not necessary to address the production of such records where a bias-related purpose is shown. Thomas also contends that she should have been provided the adult records of several of the Commonwealth's witnesses pursuant to Code § 19.2-389(38), which in pertinent part provides: Upon an ex parte motion of a defendant in a felony case and upon the showing that the records requested may be relevant to such case, the court shall enter an order requiring the Central Criminal Records Exchange to furnish the defendant ... copies of any records of persons designated in the order on whom a report has been made under the provisions of this chapter. In this case, Thomas has not identified in the trial court or on this appeal any prejudice allegedly flowing from the trial court's refusal to require production of these records; consequently, any error in such ruling would be harmless as a matter of law. Zektaw v. Commonwealth, 278 Va. 127, 139-40, 677 S.E.2d 49, 56 (2009); Pitt v. Commonwealth, 260 Va. 692, 695, 539 S.E.2d 77, 78 (2000).