Court Opinion

ID: 9569756
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:17:05.810295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:56.035960
License: Public Domain

Pope, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
While I must agree with the majority’s conclusion in Division 3 that the trial court’s charge to the jury concerning impeachment of a witness by proof of a crime of moral turpitude constitutes harmless error in this case, I write separately to emphasize to the bench and bar that the trial court’s erroneous charge on impeachment of a witness by proof of conviction of a crime of moral turpitude was completely improper under facts such as these. The evidence of defendant’s 1989 South Carolina conviction was admitted solely as evidence of a similar transaction. Although defendant testified at trial, he did not place his character in issue and my review of the record does not reveal that defendant otherwise placed his character in issue.
In this case the certified copy of the conviction was sent out with the jury to consider for another proper purpose and there was overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt; therefore, I am constrained to join the majority’s conclusion that this error was harmless. See Howard v. State, 202 Ga. App. 574 (415 SE2d 45) (1992); Sultenfuss v. State, 185 Ga. App. 47 (5) (363 SE2d 337) (1987). That conclusion, however, does not mean that those participating in criminal trials as attorneys and presiding judges should take lightly their duty to insure that mistakes like this do not happen. I query how many more times we should allow blatant errors such as this to be considered harmless.