Court Opinion

ID: 9535333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:48:07.460583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:13.213033
License: Public Domain

Fontron, J.,
dissenting: Although the court’s opinion does not so state, the alibi evidence stricken by the court in this case was the testimony of the defendant, himself. In this respect, the issue is not identical to that in State v. Kelly, 203 Kan. 360, 454 P. 2d 501.
Although I joined in the opinion handed down in State v. Rider, 194 Kan. 398, 399 P. 2d 564, I have entertained serious doubt that *359the decision was correct. I am now of the opinion that my view of the alibi statute, K. S. A. 62-1341, was erroneous and that the Rider case should be overturned before it does further harm.
A lack of time precludes lengthy discussion of the reasons underlying my change of mind, permitting me to say, merely, that in my view (1) the legislature never intended the statute to apply to a defendant himself, as is clearly indicated by the requirement that in giving written notice of alibi as a defense, the defendant must set out the names and addresses of the witnesses whom he proposes to use in support of his alibi and (2) that if the requirements of the alibi statute be applied to the defendant himself, as is here the case, his right to testify in his own behalf would be gravely and impermissibly restricted, circumscribed and limited.
I am compelled also to disagree with the conclusion reached by the majority concerning the trial court’s instruction on similar offenses. Not only does the instruction far transcend the scope of K. S. A. 60-455 in its use of such terms as inclination, attitude and tendencies, but in my opinion it was essentially prejudicial as well, for it clearly intimated, in effect, that the evidence of prior convctions admitted against the defendant was competent to show a disposition on his part to commit crime, this being in stark conflict with the first portion of the statute.
For the reasons briefly set forth, I would reverse this case with directions to grant a new trial.