Court Opinion

ID: 9582087
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:22:16.538664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:26.177434
License: Public Domain

*619Banke, Judge,
concurring specially.
1. I concur in the judgment of affirmance but resolutely dissent with that part of the opinion that relies upon Johnson v. State, 146 Ga. App. 277 (246 SE2d 363) (1978).
2. In Johnson, supra, the prosecutrix, while being examined by the prosecuting attorney, stated that she was a virgin before the alleged rape. She reiterated the same testimony on cross examination by defense counsel. During the presentation of the defense, appellant’s counsel was not permitted to introduce testimony of two witnesses who would have testified that she was not a virgin. Counsel insisted that the only purpose for which the evidence was offered was to impeach the testimony of the prosecutrix. It is axiomatic that "a witness may be impeached by disproving the facts testified to by him.” Code Ann. § 38-1802. Justice Lumpkin in construing this Code section said, "Strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as disproving a fact. A fact is something which is true, and it can never be untrue. The real meaning of the phrase that 'a witness may be impeached by disproving the facts testified to by him’ is, that he may be impeached by proving that the statements made by him in his testimony are not the truth. . .” Middle Ga. &c. R. Co. v. Barnett, 104 Ga. 582, 584 (30 SE 771) (1898). The right of impeachment is inviolable and should never be abridged. All courts should endeavor to obtain the truth, and the impeachment process is one of the best methods devised to insure this result. "It is a mistake to lay down any fixed rule which will prevent him [trial judge] from permitting such testimony as may expose a false witness.” IIIA Wigmore on Evidence, 966, 976, § 1005 (i). Truth should be sought for the very foundation of the verdict, and it should be the cement of our entire judicial process. There is no justification for letting the witness affirmatively resort to perjurious testimony in reliance on the defendant’s disability to challenge her credibility. See Walder v. United States, 347 U. S. 62 (74 SC 354, 98 LE 503) (1954).
3. In my opinion there is no conflict between Code Ann. § 38-202.1 and Code Ann. § 38-1802. Code Ann. § 38-202.1 does not modify, repeal or even mention Code *620Ann. § 38-1802. In writing our laws, it is patently unnecessary for the General Assembly to always include such words as "subject to impeachment,” etc. It is fundamental that testimonial evidence is subject to impeachment. Therefore, it was not necessary to include the words "subject to impeachment” in Code Ann. § 38-202.1 in order to trigger the provisions of the impeachment process. Nor did this section command the prohibition that the inadmissible evidence could not be introduced "for any other purpose.”
4. The majority in Johnson held that to permit the impeaching testimony would result in the unlawful introduction of evidence made inadmissible by Code Ann. § 38-202.1. In my view this reasoning is erroneous. Code Ann. Ch. 38-18 provides many methods of introducing evidence for impeachment which otherwise would be inadmissible under state statutes and case law. Even evidence ascending to constitutional standards of due process may be admitted for the purpose of impeachment although it would otherwise be clearly inadmissible; for example, unlawfully obtained confessions. See Harris v. New York, 401 U. S. 222 (91 SC 643, 28 LE2d 1) (1971); Oregon v. Hass, 420 U. S. 714 (95 SC 1215, 43 LE2d 570) (1975).
5. Further, the so-called "rape shield law,” Code Ann. § 38-202.1, was provided for the protection of the prosecutrix. When she voluntarily testified as to her lack of past sexual conduct, she waived her protection under the law. The shield provided by this law should not be perverted into a license to use questionable or possibly perjurious testimony free from the risk of adverse confrontation. When we condone conduct that erodes the right of impeachment, regardless of who takes the witness Stand, we judicially create a weak link in our established purpose of discovering the truth — the object of all legal investigations.