Court Opinion

ID: 9845376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:20:36.273468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:04.889595
License: Public Domain

Justice EXUM
dissenting.
The trial court erred prejudicially, in my view, when it permitted cross and recross examination of defendant regarding his alleged kidnapping and robbery of Robert Knowles. The incident occurred at the very end of defendant’s testimony as follows:
“Q. Did you not on the 24th day of May, 1979, kidnap and rob one Robert Knowles of $1,125.00?
Mr. TAYLOR: Objection.
COURT: Overruled.
Exception No. 55.
A. No, sir.
Redirect Examination (By Mr. Taylor)
I was charged with kidnapping and robbing Mr. Knowles. Mr. Knowles testified under oath that he could not identify me as the man who robbed him. He did testify to that and no probable cause was found in the District Court of Wayne County. The charges were dismissed. Those charges were brought against me after I was arrested on these charges.
Recross Examination (By Mr. Jacobs)
Mr. Knowles did testify that I looked like the man but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure. He told the court that. He said he wouldn’t stake his life on it. He didn’t say I looked like the man. He said, the officer, Officer Stan Flowers brought him some photographs and said I had been charged with something that happened, was a suspect and he asked him to look at the photographs to recognize me. No, sir, he didn’t say that I looked like him.”
Our rules have long been that a criminal defendant who testifies may be cross-examined about prior criminal convictions *532or other acts of misconduct provided (1) the questions are asked in good faith, i.e., the questioner reasonably believes that defendant actually was convicted or actually committed the act of misconduct asked about, and (2) defendant’s unequivocal denials are conclusive; although some “sifting” of an evasive answer is permitted. See, generally, State v. Lynch, 300 N.C. 534, 268 S.E. 2d 161 (1980); State v. Currie, 293 N.C. 523, 238 S.E. 2d 477 (1977); State v. Williams, 279 N.C. 663, 185 S.E. 2d 174 (1971). The examination of the witness, however, must not be permitted to evolve into a mini-trial on the question of defendant’s guilt of the collateral misconduct. See State v. Monk, 286 N.C. 509, 517, 212 S.E. 2d 125, 132 (1975); 1 Stansbury’s North Carolina Evidence, § 112 (Brandis Rev. 1973). The jury should not be distracted nor the defendant prejudiced by injecting into the trial the collateral question of whether defendant is guilty of some other crime for which he is not then being tried. A defendant may not, furthermore, be cross-examined about mere charges, indictments, or accusations of crime which have not resulted in convictions. State v. Williams, supra.
It is undisputed here that defendant had been at some prior time charged with kidnapping and robbing one Robert Knowles. It is likewise undisputed that at a probable cause hearing on the charges Knowles could not identify defendant as his assailant and the charges were consequently dismissed for want of probable cause. It is obvious from the prosecutor’s recross examination that he knew of the dismissal and the reason for it. The prosecutor so far as the record reveals had no reason to believe that defendant actually kidnapped or robbed Knowles. His asking about the incident must have been motivated by his desire to put before the jury the fact that defendant had been charged with an offense similar to the one for which he was being tried. The prosecutor did not ask the question in good faith. He was also permitted, in effect, to ask defendant about mere charges or accusations in violation of the holding in Williams.
The trial judge, furthermore, permitted the matter to deteriorate, impermissibly, into a mini-trial on the question of defendant’s guilt of the kidnapping and robbery of Knowles. The prosecutor was permitted to violate our rule that defendant’s unequivocal denial is conclusive. This is a likely result whenever cross-examination is permitted concerning an incident which has *533already been the subject of a criminal prosecution against defendant and which has terminated on the merits in his favor.
I have consistently urged, unsuccessfully, that the court not permit cross-examination concerning alleged acts for which defendant has been formally charged and acquitted. See State v. Herbin, 298 N.C. 441, 259 S.E. 2d 263 (1979) (Exum, J., concurring); State v. Ross, 295 N.C. 488, 246 S.E. 2d 780 (1978) (Exum, J., dissenting, joined by Sharp, C.J., and Lake, J.); see also, State v. Leonard, No. 96, Spring Term 1980 (filed 3 June 1980) (Copeland, J., dissenting, joined by Exum, J., and Carlton, J.). In Ross then Chief Justice Sharp and Justice Lake joined in my dissent expressing this view. I continue to believe as I wrote in my concurring opinion in State v. Herbin, supra, 298 N.C. at 453, 259 S.E. 2d at 271:
“When one has been tried for and acquitted of a particular crime that should end the matter for all purposes. A person so acquitted should not be required continually to defend himself against the charge in subsequent criminal proceedings in which he may become involved.”
In most cases, albeit not all, see, e.g., State v. Herbin, supra, this kind of cross-examination will severely prejudice the defendant. It is all too tempting for a jury, particularly in a close case such as the one now before us, to resolve against defendant whatever doubt it may have when it believes that defendant may have previously committed acts of criminal misconduct or, for that matter, may have merely been charged with having committed them. The jury reasons that a man who has previously been implicated in criminal activity is more likely than not to be guilty in the case before it. Our law, recognizing the fallacy of this reasoning, has long prohibited the State from offering defendant’s earlier criminal acts as evidence against him when the sole purpose is to predispose the jurors to convict him of the crime for which he is then being tried. State v. McClain, 240 N.C. 171, 81 S.E. 2d 364 (1954).
Those experienced in criminal trials know well that placing this kind of information before a jury even on cross-examination for purposes of impeachment has the same devastating effect as if the evidence had been offered in the State’s case in chief. A defendant’s past criminal record is quite often the major con*534sideration in determining that he should not testify and subject his case to the revelation of his prior criminal acts even if he maintains and would testify to proclaim his innocence in the case on trial. It is for this reason that prosecutors continue to seek every way imaginable to get such information before the jury, and defense lawyers try mightily to keep it out of the trial. Courts should be assiduous to guard against permitting its admission unless it truly serves some legitimate purpose and clearly comports with our well-established rules limiting its use.
In this case, as in Ross, Herbin and Leonard, I fear the Court has gone too far in permitting the introduction of this kind of evidence in disregard of heretofore well-established principles limiting its use.
I am satisfied defendant was prejudiced by the improper introduction of the evidence; therefore, I vote for a new trial.
Justice CARLTON joins in this dissent.