Opinion ID: 1670750
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: character witnesses

Text: Appellant's third allegation of error asserts that the trial court erred in excluding the testimony of six character witnesses for the defense. The trial court granted the state's motion to exclude the testimony because the defense failed to comply with the state's discovery request for the names and addresses of the defense witnesses that would testify at trial. We affirm. Ark.R.Crim.P. 18.3 provides the applicable discovery rule in criminal cases: Subject to constitutional limitations, the prosecuting attorney shall, upon request, be informed as soon as practicable before trial of the nature of any defense which defense counsel intends to use at trial and the names and addresses of persons whom defense counsel intends to call as witnesses in support thereof. The state filed its discovery request on August 30, 1989. On October 10, 1989, the trial court entered an order directing appellant to respond to the state's request within ten days prior to trial. Appellant failed to comply. He argues that the trial court erred in sanctioning him for his noncompliance because the substance of the witnesses' testimony would be limited to statements concerning appellant's truthfulness and veracity. Rule 18.3 could not be clearer. We have held that the rule applies with equal force to testimony offered in support of a general denial defense and testimony offered to support an affirmative defense. Weaver v. State, 290 Ark. 556, 720 S.W.2d 905 (1986). Discovery in criminal cases, within constitutional limitations, must be a two way street. Id. at 558, 720 S.W.2d at 906. This interpretation promotes fairness by allowing both sides the opportunity to full pretrial preparation, preventing surprise at trial, and avoiding unnecessary delays during the trial. Id. In the instant case, the trial court found that appellant's failure to comply with the discovery order prejudiced the state. Without the names and addresses of appellant's witnesses, the state could not exercise its right to obtain information questioning the witnesses' credibility. We find that the trial court's exclusion of appellant's character witnesses was a proper sanction for appellant's blatant disregard of the discovery rule. We reject appellant's attempt to characterize his witnesses as rebuttal witnesses. He attempts this characterization in an effort to bring his witnesses within the narrow exception to Rule 18.3 that we recognized in Weaver, supra . We noted that genuine rebuttal witnesses need not be disclosed before trial because neither the defense nor the state necessarily knows in advance of the need for such rebuttal testimony. Id. In this case, appellant planned to use the witnesses in his case-inchief. Since he knew in advance of the need for the witnesses' testimony, the trial court did not err in refusing to give appellant the benefit of the rebuttal witness exception to the discovery rule.