Court Opinion

ID: 9586672
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:13:55.475392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:47.170974
License: Public Domain

Thompson, C. J.,
dissenting:
I agree that the prosecutor erred when he asked the defendant whether he had been convicted of a felony. However, I do not share the majority’s view that the mistake was harmless. The improper suggestion that the defendant is an ex-felon is per se damaging. Prejudice inheres in that suggestion, and the defendant’s right to a fair trial is not adequately protected by the court’s admonition to the jury to ignore the suggestion and forget it.
My view was first expressed on this subject in a dissenting opinion in Walker v. State, 78 Nev. 463, 376 P.2d 137 (1962). There, the suggestion was placed before the jury by the prosecutor in his opening statement. Five years later the *291Walker case came before us once more. Walker v. Fogliani, 83 Nev. 154, 425 P.2d 794 (1967). On that occasion, Mr. Justice Zenoff, the writer of the majority opinion in today’s case, shared my view, stating: “Reference to past criminal history is reversible error.” The same underlying theme was again expressed in my dissenting opinion in Pacheco v. State, 82 Nev. 172, 414 P.2d 100 (1966), where comment about the defendant’s status as an ex-felon came to the jurors attention during trial through the reading of newspapers. The cases of Garner v. State, 78 Nev. 366, 374 P.2d 525 (1962), and Tucker v. State, 82 Nev. 127, 412 P.2d 970 (1966), bear generally upon the same subject. The convictions in Garner and Tucker were reversed and a new trial ordered.
It is desirable to strive for a consistent treatment of this issue. Many errors do not carry inherent prejudice and the appellate court may properly exercise the discretion given by the doctrine of harmless error and decide whether to affirm or reverse. On the other hand, it is the common experience of man that other kinds of error inevitably tend to divert the jurors attention from the merits of the case and encourage a conviction on false assumptions or irrelevant information. The false suggestion that the defendant is an ex-felon falls within this category of error, and, in my opinion, leaves no room for resort to the rule of harmless error.
In this case the suggestion that the defendant had been found guilty of a crime the week before in another case was forcefully placed before the jury. When the defendant testified, he denied having been convicted of a felony. His denial was correct. The jury’s guilty verdict of the previous week was not a conviction. Allgood v. State, 78 Nev. 326, 372 P.2d 466 (1962). That verdict could be set aside and a new trial granted before the time appointed for pronouncement of judgment and sentence. NRS 175.540. Judgment had not been entered upon that verdict. A “conviction” had not occurred. In an effort to impeach the defendant, the prosecutor, on rebuttal, called the deputy county clerk, who testified, over vehement objection, that she was present in court the week before when the jury returned a guilty verdict against the defendant. Of course, her testimony was not proof. An authenticated record of the conviction (had there been one) is required. A judicial record of this state is to be proved by the original or a certified copy thereof. NRS 49.040. The judicial record of another state, if to be accorded full faith and credit, shall be proved by an exemplified copy of such record. 28 U.S.C. § 1738. It is manifest that the court should have sustained defense counsel’s *292objection to the clerk’s testimony for two reasons; the defendant had not, in fact, been convicted of a felony; and, in any event, the method of proof was improper. The court’s action striking the testimony from the record came too late. The damage had been accomplished. Each juror knew that the defendant had previously been found guilty of a crime. The court admonition could not erase that knowledge, nor am I willing to assume that the admonition was followed in deciding the merits of the present case.
I respectfully dissent.