Opinion ID: 1597377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jury Instruction on Determining Credibility of Witnesses and Finding Facts

Text: Musgrove and Rogers contend that a jury instruction regarding the credibility of witnesses and the truthfulness of testimony removed from the jury its exclusive right to be the finder of fact and denied the defendants a fair trial. The jury instruction that the defendants now claim is improper stated: Now, if you find that you cannot reasonably reconcile the testimony of all the witnesses so as to make them all speak the truth then you should determine what testimony you find to be true and what testimony you find to be untrue, consider that which you find to be true and disregard that which you find to be untrue. (Emphasis added.) The defendants contend that a jury instruction to reconcile all the testimony and to weigh the testimony of different witnesses differently only if such reconciliation is not possible requires that a juror initially take all the testimony of all the witnesses as true. They contend that such an instruction is functionally identical to an instruction to presume that the witnesses are testifying truthfully, which would have prevented the jury from disbelieving any testimony that was not contradicted. Under Alabama law, there is no presumption that a witness is testifying truthfully. Ex parte Holifield, 562 So.2d 254, 255 (Ala.1990); Williams v. State, 520 So.2d 179, 181 (Ala.Crim.App.1987). Neither Musgrove nor Rogers objected to the jury charges at issue during trial and they have not previously raised the issue on appellate review. Accordingly, the issue is reviewable only under the plain error standard. Rule 39(k), A.R.App.P. The State contends that this individual jury instruction does not constitute plain error because, it says, the jury charge, when taken in its entirety, clearly informed the jurors that they were the sole factfinders and judges of the witnesses' credibility. We agree. In Ex parte Holifield, we found that a nearly identical jury instruction to reconcile the testimony so that the witnesses have spoken the truth was merely harmless error because the charge in its entirety cured the error found in that isolated instruction. 562 So.2d at 255. As previously noted, in review of a trial court's jury charge, individual instructions are not to be isolated or taken out of context, but must be considered in light of all the other instructions. Id.; Alexander, 601 So.2d at 1133. In this case, the record reveals that the trial judge repeatedly instructed the jurors that they were to be the sole finders of fact and weighers of the witnesses' credibility. For example, the trial judge stated: As jurors you are the triers and finders of facts in these cases[,] from the evidence[,] in determining and deciding the guilt or innocence of each of these Defendants.... As jurors you are the sole and exclusive judges of the evidence and the weight and sufficiency of the evidence[,] and not only that, you are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses. You are to determine what weight you will give to the testimony of witnesses and in making that determination [,] among other things[,] you may consider any interest, any bias, any prejudice, any relationship or any other thing that you may find a witness has if in your judgment it may tend to keep that witness from testifying to the truth.... The testimony of an expert witness[,] even though they have had ample opportunity to experiment and examine the subject matter on which they testify [,] is not binding upon the jury. Such testimony has been submitted for you to weigh and consider with all the other testimony and evidence in this case.... Now, it is a matter of law that if a witness has heretofore been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude it goes to his credibility as a witness; in other words, the jury may take that into account in determining how much weight and how much credibility they will give to that particular witnesses's testimony ... Accordingly, even though the trial judge's instruction to reconcile the testimony was in error, any error was sufficiently cured by the additional instructions, so that the error did not rise to the level of plain error.