Court Opinion

ID: 9463772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:15:57.345669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:16.728886
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in Judge Van Graafeiland’s well-reasoned opinion. In addition, I believe that the questions put by the prosecutor to the character witnesses were improper because they asked the jury to assume the defendant to be guilty of the very charge on trial, i.e., that he sold stock to his customers without disclosing that the company was in receivership. Since character evidence is admitted only as bearing upon guilt or innocence, an opinion based upon the assumption that the defendant is guilty cannot have any probative value in deciding that issue. However, in the absence of any showing of prejudice, the error was harmless in the present case.