Court Opinion

ID: 9686542
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:54:35.036729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:19.937175
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). The majority concludes that the circuit court’s erroneous exclusion of Steinbacher’s testimony on behalf of the defendant was harmless error. Unfortunately the majority reaches this conclusion without explaining which test for harmless error it is using. Deciding the applicable test and analyzing the evidence under each test may be the *250most difficult issue presented in the case for the majority.
I conclude that this court should reverse the decision of the court of appeals, whether it treats the error as constitutional error, nonconstitutional error, or plain error, or whether it acts under sec. 751.06, Stats. 1981-82.
The jury in this case was confronted with a serious question of credibility. Whom should it believe: the state’s primary witness, Jarnig-, a participant in the crime who received immunity in exchange for his testimony implicating the defendant; the defendant; or Daniel Gilbert, another participant in the crime, and Thomas Eckert, witnesses who were supportive of the defendant’s testimony.
Steinbacher whose testimony was excluded was an important witness for the defendant. The jury may have given more weight to his testimony than to the testimony of other witnesses. Unlike any of the other witnesses in the case, he did not have a criminal record, he had not previously given an inconsistent statement, and he had no stake in the outcome of the trial.
In view of the entire record, I conclude that Stein-bacher’s testimony was of great importance to the defendant’s case. Steinbacher’s testimony not only would have corroborated the defendant’s testimony but also would have directly undercut Jarnig’s assertion that the defendant planned the robbery. It was especially crucial that the defendant have the opportunity to bolster his own testimony and undercut Jarnig’s testimony, since the jury had been instructed that it could consider the defendant’s prior convictions and his interest in the case in weighing the credibility of his testimony and could base a conviction wholly on the testimony of an accomplice if that testimony rang true.
*251Steinbacher’s testimony went directly to the crux of the case — the credibility of the defendant and the credibility of the state’s chief witness. See State v. Cuyler, 110 Wis. 2d 133, 141-43, 327 N.W.2d 662 (1983); Garcia v. State, 73 Wis. 2d 651, 655, 245 N.W.2d 654 (1976); Logan v. State, 43 Wis. 2d 128, 137, 168 N.W.2d 171 (1969). The jury cannot search for truth if the circuit court erroneously prevents the jury from considering relevant and admissible evidence on a critical issue in the case. The error was not harmless in this case.
Accordingly, I dissent.