Court Opinion

ID: 9732437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:20:46.377353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:22:24.170590
License: Public Domain

Underwood, J.,
dissenting. 12 V.S.A. § 1608 permits the State to use evidence of defendant’s previous convictions of crimes involving moral turpitude to impeach the credibility of the defendant. Although defendant conceded at a suppression hearing that two of the four convictions offered by the State in*119volved crimes of moral turpitude, he moved to exclude all four of the convictions. The district court denied the motion and admitted three of the convictions.
12 V.S.A. § 1608, however, no longer permits the State, as a matter of right, to introduce evidence of prior convictions, even if they do involve crimes of moral turpitude. We held in State v. Gardner, 139 Vt. 456, 433 A.2d 249 (1981), that cross-examination of the defendant concerning his prior convictions is subject to the discretion of the trial court. In exercising its discretion the court should consider the nature of the proceeding for “the greatest danger of prejudice exists when the witness to be impeached is the defendant in a criminal trial.” Id. at 460, 433 A.2d at 251. The nature of the crimes to be admitted for impeachment purposes is most important. “An especially severe possibility of prejudice exists when the crime to be introduced for impeachment is similar to or the same as the crime for which the defendant is accused.” Id. at 460-61, 433 A.2d at 251. If the defendant has no means of defense other than his or her own testimony, and the fear of impeachment is likely to prevent him or her from testifying, then the court “should more readily exclude evidence of prior convictions when there are other means of impeachment available.” Id. at 461, 433 A.2d at 252.
The length of a defendant’s criminal record can be highly prejudicial. Id. at 461, 433 A.2d at 251-52. The defendant here had a record of four prior convictions, and the court admitted three of them.
Defendant was charged with two counts of breaking and entering in the daytime, and the three convictions which the court permitted the State to use to impeach his credibility— namely petit larceny, breaking and entering in the daytime and receiving stolen property — were so similar to the offense for which he was being tried that their introduction did not serve to impeach the veracity of the defendant but could only implant in the jurors’ minds that if the defendant had previously committed these crimes he more than likely committed the crimes for which he was now being charged.
Assuming that the three convictions admitted all involved crimes of moral turpitude, the probative value of such evidence strictly for impeachment purposes is scant. The State had “other means of impeachment available.” The State had a wit*120ness who could testify that the defendant actually admitted involvement in one of the burglaries. Although the admission was admissible as substantive evidence of guilt, it was a prior inconsistent statement and therefore could be used to impeach the defendant’s testimony at trial, when he claimed non-involvement. Commonwealth v. Roots, 482 Pa. 33, 41-42, 393 A.2d 364, 368 (1978). Evidence of the prior convictions served only to attack the character of the defendant who had not previously put his character in issue. We have held that “evidence of prior convictions is not admissible for the purpose of showing that a defendant in a criminal trial is ‘the type of person who would do such a thing.’ ” State v. Bushey, 142 Vt. 507, 510, 457 A.2d 279, 281 (1983) (quoting State v. Moran, 141 Vt. 10, 19-20, 444 A.2d 879, 884 (1982)). “To project the issue of the accused’s former conviction (s) into the trial for a subsequent offense, before verdict, practically deprives the respondent of the legal presumption of innocence, inevitably prejudices the jury against him, and takes from him his constitutional right to be convicted only by the judgment of his peers and due process of law.” State v. Cameron, 126 Vt. 244, 250, 227 A.2d 276, 280 (1967).
When a trial court is confronted with a request for admissibility of evidence of prior convictions to impeach a defendant in a criminal case, it should bear in mind that “[ejxclusion is the rule, and admission the exception.” State v. Batchelor, 135 Vt. 366, 369, 376 A.2d 737, 740 (1977).
The court’s failure to give adequate consideration to the close similarity of the prior convictions with the crimes for which the defendant was on trial, or to weigh adequately the fact that the defendant was the only witness who could establish his innocence, and to consider seriously the effect of the length of the defendant’s criminal record, constituted an abuse of discretion. In my view it was reversible error. State v. Jarrett, 143 Vt. 191, 465 A.2d 238 (1983).
Since the court made no written or oral findings on defendant’s motion in limine to exclude the prior convictions, as I suggested in my concurring opinion in Jarrett, I do not see how the majority can say: “Review of that record satisfies us that the court considered and applied the Gardner factors as required by Jarrett, supra, and in doing so did not abuse its discretion.”
*121Because of the court’s abuse of discretion and the resultant highly prejudicial impact of the prior convictions, I would reverse and remand for a new trial. I am authorized to say Justice Gibson joins in this dissent.