Court Opinion

ID: 9542659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:37:04.010583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:35.603899
License: Public Domain

GIVAN, Justice.
A jury trial resulted in the conviction of appellant of the crime of Murder, for which she received a sentence of forty (40) years.
Appellant, her husband, and the vie-tim were involved in an extramarital triangle which the jury found to result in appellant killing the victim. Although the evidence in this case is sufficient to sustain the verdict, it was entirely circumstantial. One of the State's witnesses, Jenny Lynn Okuly, testified that she was an inmate in the jail with appellant, that she had often talked with appellant about the alleged murder, and that at all times appellant had denied having anything to do with it. The prosecuting attorney then asked, "Do you believe that to be the truth?"
Appellant's attorney immediately vigorously objected and properly pointed out to the court that such a question is highly improper and invades the province of the jury. The judge at first sustained the objection, but later, after argument by the prosecuting attorney, permitted the witness to answer that she did not believe that appellant was telling the truth when she denied killing the victim.
This Court has repeatedly stated that such a question is highly improper. Neither lay witnesses nor expert witnesses are competent to testify that another witness is or is not telling the truth. Head v. State (1988), Ind., 519 N.E.2d 151 and cases cited therein.
This case is therefore reversed and remanded to the trial court for a new trial.
SHEPARD, C.J., and PIVARNIK and DICKSON, JJ., concur.
DeBRULER, J., concurs and dissents with separate opinion.