Court Opinion

ID: 9758628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:38:29.294081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:53.565619
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice,
concurring.
My review of the record convinces me that the sequence of questioning by the court coupled with the allowance of the district attorney to proceed with the impeachment of the witness was unnecessarily excessive and intimidated the witness into changing his testimony. I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority.
At trial, Coy Coley, a Commonwealth witness, testified favorably for the defense when asked if he could identify the victim’s assailant. This testimony contradicted that which he had given at the preliminary hearing. The district attorney repeated the question several times during the examination attempting to get the witness to change his mind. When this failed, the trial court intervened and questioned Coley before the jury, but the witness repeated that he did not see the assailant in the courtroom. At the request of the Commonwealth the jury was excused and the district attorney confronted the witness with his prior testimony. However, Coley again stated that he could not identify the individual. The judge then advised Coley concerning the nature of the crime of perjury and inquired whether the witness desired to change his trial testimony. Coley responded that he did not.1 The Commonwealth then pleaded surprise and was granted permission to cross exam*332iné the witness. Prior to recalling the jury, the court again instructed the witness on the crime of perjury. When trial resumed, the district attorney cross exámined Coley concerning the prior inconsistent statements and as a result, the witness finally admitted that his previous identification of appellant as the assailant was correct.
While it may have been appropriate to use either impeachment by the district attorney or a warning by the trial judge concerning the crime of perjury2 to ascertain which of the conflicting statements was correct, the combination of these two methods was, in my judgment excessive. The intensive questioning by the prosecutor and the court coupled with the perjury instructiori and the impeachment clearly suggested to the witness that the court disbelieved his trial testimony. Thus, it is highly probable that Coley ultimately conformed his trial statements to his preliminary hearing testimony to satisfy what he perceived to be the court’s expectations, rather than testify from his own recollection of the events which transpired. Because Coley’s identification of Laws was crucial to the conviction, I concur in the award of a new trial.

. After extensive colloquy by the court with Coley concerning the crime of perjury and the prior inconsistent statements, the court concluded its interrogation of the witness as follows:
Q. I’ll ask you is what you’ve just said to the jury the truth or do you wish to change that in any way now that you’ve read those notes?
MR. ELLIOTT: Objection
THE COURT: Overruled
Q. Do you understand my question?
A. Right. No, I don’t wish to change it.
Q. You are staying by the answers you just gave to the jury right now?
*332A. (No response.)
Q. Is that right?
A. Right.
Q. You still maintain then you did not see who did the stabbing and you do not see in this courtroom the person that you have described to the jury as a light skinned colored person or black person about five feet seven who went within touching distance of the victim, John Alicea? Is that your testimony today?
A. (No response.)
Q. Is it?
A. Right.
Q. And you do not wish to change that in any way whatsoever?
MR. ELLIOTT: Objection
THE WITNESS: No. I just want to get out of here.

. I am in agreement with the view expressed by the majority that the court’s power to warn a witness of the consequences of perjury should be employed sparingly and with utmost circumspection.