Court Opinion

ID: 9726449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:50:27.618533+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:27.370616
License: Public Domain

Carter, J.,
concurring in result.
I am in accord with the result reached in this case. I do not agree with the change made in our traditional rule dealing with the impeachment of witnesses. In the first place, no change in the rules is required in the case before us since the witnesses involved were hostile and subject to impeachment under the existing rule. In the second place, the announced rule is too broad and will create more problems that it eliminates.
I do not disagree that the rule of impeachment is properly subject to reexamination in the light of present-day conditions and the disappearance of the factors on which it was originally based. I do contend that a sweeping change by general terms in an opinion without careful investigation, research, and consideration is not justified where it changes a rule long in force as a fundamental concept of the rules of evidence. A committee appointed by this court is at the present time engaged in drafting a code on evidence which includes the consideration of a new impeachment rule. Any change in the rule should await the recommendations of that committee. The importance of the rule change is deserving of the utmost care in its preparation to effectuate proper limitations of the rule in eliminating the ills necessary to he remedied.
White, C. J., and Newton, J., join in this concurrence.