Court Opinion

ID: 9770282
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:57:14.686405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:16.159425
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached in this case but I believe the statements in the principal opinion regarding the appellant’s right to elicit testimony concerning Mansfield’s, the informant, status or task at the time of the offense are overbroad and, perhaps, dicta.
Pretrial rulings regarding evidentiary matters are sometimes helpful to an orderly trial but are not conclusive as procedural rights change as different evidence is elicited.
If a person’s name or conduct is not mentioned to the jury, then it seems clear that that person’s credibility never becomes an issue. Here, when the trooper identified Mansfield as the person who accompanied the trooper and testified to certain statements Mansfield made in connection with the drug purchase, it would clearly have been proper for defense counsel to ask the trooper what Mansfield’s position and task was in connection with this arrest. He, Mansfield, could have been another trooper, a deputy sheriff, or some other type of assistant — such as he was in this case. But that question was never asked then or when Mansfield testified. I do not regard the trial judge’s pretrial ruling as conclusively preventing the defense counsel from inquiry as to the status, occupation, position, etc., of a participant in the transaction and arrest. But the question simply was never asked. Maybe it was purposely not asked. In any event, I do not believe it was prejudicial in view of Mansfield’s testimony in this case.
With respect to the issue relating to the sheriff being sent out to select and summon additional jurors, it should be noted that courts in rural areas experience this difficulty from time to time and I believe there should be a better method devised to handle the problem. The principal opinion suggests the sheriff was a disinterested person with respect to this trial. The sheriff is the chief law enforcement official in the county and in my opinion can never be regarded as totally unbiased regarding a criminal prosecution, regardless of what agency did the investigation. Sheriffs want prosecutions to be successful and work with the prosecuting attorney to that end on a day-by-day basis.
Allowing the sheriff to select the additional veniremen tends to jeopardize the validity of a conviction and in my opinion ought not to be done. There is, however, nothing in this case to evidence any bias in the selection of the additional veniremen by the sheriff.