Court Opinion

ID: 9766422
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:47:51.593301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:22.410392
License: Public Domain

HOLMAN, Presiding Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Officer Smith was permitted to testify that Mr. Gaston identified defendant as one of the guilty persons from a photograph shown him on the day following the burglary and also from a lineup a few days later. The principal opinion holds that that testimony constituted reversible error and the case is remanded for a new trial. As I construe that opinion the testimony was ruled inadmissible because it violated the hearsay rule, a ground not included in the objections made at the trial. However, assuming that the point is properly before us, and that the admission of the evidence was error, I would not reverse the judgment and order a new trial because I do not think any prejudice resulted from the testimony in question.
In this case, although defendant contends that he is innocent and that Mr. Gaston erred in identifying him, there is no controversy about the fact that he did identify him as one of the burglars on the two occasions mentioned above. Therefore, the testimony of Officer Smith concerning the fact that Gaston identified defendant on those occasions is merely cumulative of facts established by the undisputed testimony of Mr. Gaston. It has long been an established rule that the admission of improper evidence is harmless where the fact thereby sought to be shown is otherwise fully and properly proved. An examination of the Digest will disclose hundreds of cases that have followed that rule. See Mo. Digest, Criminal Law <®=1169(2), and Appeal and Error, ^1051(1). A situation somewhat like the one before us existed in State v. Johnson, Mo.Sup., 252 S.W. 623, 625. In ruling the point this court stated, “It is contended that a police officer’s statements on the witness stand as to what the witness Jackson had told him concerning his testimony was error, as constituting mere hearsay. Jackson himself testified to the same facts, and while the admission of the officer’s testimonj was technically improper, the same facts having been elicited by other and competent testimony, the appellant was not thereby prejudiced.” Of similar import is State v. Burns, Mo.Sup., 280 S.W.2d 119, wherein Police Officer Livingston had testified that he had been present on two identifica*66tions. In disposing of contentions of error in that regard the court said, “prior to witness Livingston taking the stand, witnesses who were at the scene of the robbery were examined and cross-examined respecting their identification of defendant after his arrest in a ‘show up’ room. In the circumstances the witness’s answer that he was present at two identifications did not add to the State’s case, was not prejudicial and did not constitute reversible error.” State v. Burns, Mo.Sup., 280 S.W.2d l. c. 122.
The principal opinion states that the rule above discussed should not be followed in this case because such would have the effect of nullifying the evidentiary rule it applies. With that I do not agree. The rule I have stated is a general rule and should be invoked in every situation where applicable. The case before us is a classic example of non-prejudicial error. It is an elementary rule, to which there is no exception, that no case should be reversed unless there is shown to have been prejudicial error. The principal opinion states that the question of lack of prejudice, by reason of the cumulative nature of the testimony, should not be considered. That ruling will have the effect of inferentially overruling most, if not all, of the cases following the rule I have discussed above and will greatly impair the administration of justice in this State in both civil and criminal cases.
The principal opinion relies primarily on State v. Fleming, 354 Mo. 31, 188 S.W.2d 12, in support of its ruling. There is no conflict between that opinion and the views I have expressed because that case did not consider the question as to whether the error was non-prejudicial because of the cumulative nature of the testimony complained of. Moreover, Fleming is somewhat distinguishable because in that case the father of prosecutrix and the police officers were permitted to recite a rather lengthy narrative given by prosecutrix when she made complaint concerning the offense.
As indicated, I would affirm the judgment in this case.