Court Opinion

ID: 9706207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:34:31.398655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:20.158946
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE GREEN, concurring specially: I concur in the result reached. I agree that here, as in Eddington, the trial court did not commit reversible error in refusing to permit cross-examination of the accomplice Sparks concerning his admission of having committed other offenses. As he had admitted to receiving immunity for the instant offense, any further impeachment for bias would have been merely cumulative. I do not agree that the defense does not generally have the right to cross-examine a prosecution witness about other offenses, the prosecution for which is as likely as here, even though it is not shown that the witness expects leniency. The mere incentive that the witness has to curry favor with the prosecution has probative value on the issue of bias. See People v. Mason (1963), 28 Ill. 2d 396, 192 N.E.2d 835; McCormick, Evidence §40, at 80 (2d ed. 1972).