Court Opinion

ID: 9861014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:39:05.780067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:27:03.593367
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Chief Justice,
concurring.
While I join today’s majority opinion, I write separately to emphasize that our pri- or decision in Baxter v. State (1988), Ind., 522 N.E.2d 362, decided only the constitutionality of prohibiting testimony by a defendant under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Thus, while Baxter is still stare deci-sis as to the federal issues resolved there, it does not drive today's decision concerning the Indiana Bill of Rights.
I also note that we hold today only with “the exclusion of a defendant’s own alibi testimony.” Opin. at 499. The task of balancing the interests involved in a fair trial might well be different when the question concerns exclusion of evidence other than the defendant’s own testimony.
Finally, I want to commend Deputy Attorney General Geoff Davis on the high caliber of the brief he submitted on behalf of Attorney General Pamela Carter.