Court Opinion

ID: 9547672
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:50:17.788122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:56.496096
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, J.
I concur in reversing the conviction because I
believe that admission of the heroin addiction evidence was prejudicial error. That evidence tainted the jury’s evaluation not of the witnesses’ credibility but of defendant’s motive, “brand[ing] him as a habitual lawbreaker, a loathsome, unworthy person, predisposed to rob or steal to support his habit. [Defendant] is entitled to have the conflicting evidence reweighed without that kind of handicap.” (People v. Davis (1965) 233 Cal.App.2d 156, 162 [43 Cal.Rptr. 357].)_