Court Opinion

ID: 9763043
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:35:57.125721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:39.130063
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
concurring.
I join the majority opinion except as it suggests that counsel could have introduced witnesses to testify to the appellant’s wife’s “bad character”. I generally agree that it would have been permissible to impeach her credibility as a witness with evidence of her conviction for unauthorized use of a credit card, at 442, n. 5, although I believe the proper means of doing so would have been in the course of cross-examining her, and not through questioning of her parents. Moreover, her parents and perhaps others might have been questioned as to her reputation for truth and veracity generally, but not as to specific acts. Beyond that, however, I fail to understand on what basis testimony as to her “bad character” would have been admissible.