174 SW3D 451 - Dickerson v. Commonwealth

How this case has been cited

Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably Winstead v. Commonwealth (2009), Clark v. Commonwealth (2007)

31 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

¶1Opinion by

Justice SCOTT,

¶2Concurring in Part and Dissenting in Part.

¶3I concur with all of Justice Cooper’s opinion except issue IV.A.2, in regards to the “continuing objection.”

¶4The granting of such objections is controlled by the trial courts and is used to avoid repetitive interruptions. They are a useful tool and should be upheld when granted. Otherwise, their use will become so fraught with the “danger of waiver,” that trial attorney’s will avoid their use. One, who has sat through trials with repetitive objection after repetitive objection, knows how damaging they can be to a party and how irritating it can be to the court — and the jury. It’s not something one should do and this is the reason for asking for, and getting a “continuing objection.” The continuing objection granted in this case served its purpose and should be upheld so as to preserve its intended function — which in this case was to object to any evidence (hearsay or otherwise) pertaining to the prior convictions.