Court Opinion

ID: 9765377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:01:26.449143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:09.443791
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent to the holding in this case that a witness’s prior inconsistent statement may be introduced at trial as substantive evidence. Until today, that has never been the law of Pennsylvania. The rule discarded today by the majority is indeed “antiquated,” as are many of the hard-wrought concepts which enhance our traditional definition of due process.
It is generally agreed that the theory of the use of prior inconsistent statements at trial is that such statements may be introduced into evidence for the purpose of discrediting *137the present testimony of a witness. The witness said one thing earlier and now says something else. As Wigmore puts it:
We simply set the two [statements] against each other, perceive that both cannot be correct, and immediately conclude that he has erred in one or the other — but without determining which one. It is the repugnancy and inconsistency that demonstrates his error, and not the superior credibility of the prior statement. Thus, we do not necessarily accept his former statement as replacing his present one.
IIIA Wigmore, On Evidence (Chadbourn Rev.1970) § 1018.
The question which arises at this point in the analysis is whether the prior statements may be utilized as substantive evidence, and not merely to indicate that the witness is unreliable. The majority would permit the substantive use of prior inconsistent statements because the witness is present in court, under oath, able to explain the circumstances of the prior statement, subject to cross-examination, and because the prior statement will normally have been made closer in time to the incident in question, and therefore, presumably is more reliable.
These observations notwithstanding, it is nevertheless the Commonwealth’s obligation to establish in court, not at some prior time, every element of the crime with which the defendant is charged. If the Commonwealth’s case is not substantial enough to stand alone, based on reliable evidence presented here and now to the court, but instead must rely on the use of prior statements made out-of-court which are inconsistent with those presently being made in court to prove any element of the crime, the case should fail, for the prior statements, if made at all, may or may not be adequately, fully, and competently presented and explained in the present forum. This uncertainty raises the requisite reasonable doubt as to the trustworthiness and value of the prior statements as substantive evidence, and the rule announced by the majority works to “bootstrap” the guilt of the accused.
*138We have taken a long step backwards by the decision today.
I would reverse the order of Superior Court and grant a new trial.
ZAPPALA, J., joins this dissenting opinion.