Court Opinion

ID: 9471368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:30:42.719228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:22.768850
License: Public Domain

LAY, Chief Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority’s opinion which finds that the defendant’s “cross-examination was extremely limited” and that the limiting instructions given by the court adequately protected the defendant’s right to a fair trial. I feel that the prosecutor’s cross-examination went beyond what is allowed under the Rules of Evidence and what should be tolerated by this court.
Rule 609 of the Federal Rules of Evidence permits impeachment of a witness by “evidence that he has been convicted of a crime.” Fed.R.Evid. 609(a). Under this rule, the prosecutor was entitled to question the defendant as to the fact of the conviction. However, the prosecutor’s repeated questioning on the circumstances of the conviction went beyond mere proof of the crime. It was an attempt to paint Johnson as having a bad character.
In his cross-examination of the defendant, the prosecutor repeatedly emphasized not only the prior conviction but the facts of the crime:
Q. You were convicted again in Minnesota two more times for aggravated assault?
A. One, I said one time in 1970 — ’70 or ’71.
Q. Okay. Did somebody get hurt that time?
A. Yes, sir, somebody did get hurt.
Q. Did a lady get shot in the back?
A. Yes, sir, accidentally.
Q. A bullet got stuck somewhere into her body from behind her, didn’t it?
A. It did, right.
Q. You had the gun?
A. It was her gun, sir.
Q. You were convicted of the aggravated assault. Right?
A. Right.
Q. You went to trial on that?
A. Right.
Q. The jury came back and found that you had done that, didn’t they?
A. Yes, sir.
Transcript of Trial at 5-8, United States v. Johnson, No. Cr. 4-82-90 (D.Minn.1983).
The trial court abetted this unauthorized cross-examination by asking the defendant about his relationship with the victim of the earlier crime. The prosecutor then renewed his attack on the defendant’s character by asking “Did you shoot her to protect her (the victim’s) honor?” This exchange involving the defendant, prosecutor, and court is unwarranted and unacceptable under Rule 609.
The writer is unaware of any cases in this circuit which have allowed the prosecutor to delve so repeatedly into the facts of a collateral crime. It is fundamentally and prej-udicially wrong for the prosecutor to abuse the narrow license of Rule 609. Regardless of guilt or innocence, a defendant is entitled to a fair trial. The paramount interests of the administration of criminal justice so require. I therefore respectfully dissent.