Court Opinion

ID: 9736721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:03:59.745302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:08.419950
License: Public Domain

P. E. Deegan, J.
(concurring). I respectfully concur in the result reached by the majority.
However, I do not agree that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutor to question his witness about an inconsistency between his testimony at the preliminary examination and the trial.
Under the factual situation presented in this case, I find that the prosecutor neither impeached nor rehabilitated the witness Turner with his inconsistent statement. The prosecutor merely used a defensive strategy to bring out Turner’s inconsistent statement in order to allow him to explain the inconsistency. This trial tactic is permissible because counsel plainly is not impeaching his own witness as precluded by MRE 607 but is acting defensively in a manner which no rule of law prevents.
Moreover, in a related area, it is a frequent occurrence that defense counsel will bring out defendant’s prior criminal record as a matter of strategy in order to lessen the impact of an expected attack on his credibility. This strategy has not been found to be improper even though the opposing party’s attack has not preceded the rehabilitating explanation. Compare People v Lytal, 96 Mich App 140, 155-158; 292 NW2d 498 (1980), where this Court allowed the prosecutor to anticipate a cross-examination by defense counsel of alleged accomplice witnesses for the prosecution on the matter of a prior deal with the prosecutor in exchange for their testimony.