Court Opinion

ID: 9665436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:48:42.539613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:15.804820
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. I do not agree that the trial court abused its discretion in permitting the rebuttal testimony of appellant’s former wife relative to his conduct toward her. The testimony was initiated, not by the prosecution but by the defense in repeated questions to appellant’s mother as to appellant’s behavior and conduct toward his wife and son. The obvious purpose was to create an impression by the jury that appellant was an adoring and devoted husband and father. No other inference is possible. Where that occurs the State is entitled to some latitude to rebut that kind of evidence with facts from which other inferences could be drawn. Otherwise, the prosecution is rendered helpless where the defense affirmatively elicits testimony which portrays the character of the accused in a false light. The testimony was not collateral and the means by which the State answered it in rebuttal falls within the “wide discretion” of the trial court, which we will not reverse absent manifest abuse. Shipman v. State, 252 Ark. 285, 478 S.W. 2d 421 (1972); City of Fayetteville v. Stone, 194 Ark. 218, 106 S.W. 2d 158 (1937). Supplemental Opinion on Denial of Rehearing delivered April 19, 1982 Darrell Hickman, Justice. The State in its petition for rehearing argues that the case of Howell v. State, 141 Ark. 487, 217 S.W. 2d 457 (1920), is directly in point and holds that the State can impeach testimony brought out on direct examination with contradictory testimony. In Howell the victim in a rape case stated on direct examination that she had never had sexual intercourse with any man except the defendant. The defense was not allowed to impeach this testimony by offering the testimony of another man. We held this was error, pointing out that the State brought up the issue on direct examination, and since it did, the defense ought to be allowed to impeach it with contradictory testimony. If the counterpoint of that situation existed in this case it would have been as follows: Kellensworth would have stated on direct examination that he had never mistreated his wife in any way by striking her or beating her. In Howell the testimony was not that the victim was chaste or had a reputation for chastity, an issue permitted to be raised in those days, but was that the victim herself had never had intercourse with anyone except the defendant. The statement was not made by a third party but by the victim herself. In this case the statement was a general statement by Kellensworth’s mother and at best could only have been a statement of opinion as to general character, not specific instances of good conduct. Furthermore, the State elicited from Kellensworth and his father on cross-examination testimony about how Kellensworth treated his wife; this subject was never raised by the defense during the direct examination of these witnesses. Due to these differences we deem Howell v. State, supra, distinguishable.