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226 Kan. 719

602 P.2d 1263

State v. Whitehead

Supreme Court of Kansas

Decided December 1, 1979

Supreme Court of Kansas · decided 1979-12-01

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1979-12-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently June 2004

21 state decisions

1201979198019902000decided

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.

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Miller, J.,

¶1dissenting: I agree with McFarland, J., that the statement of Presley that appellant “was dealing dope” was not *725admissible under K.S.A. 60-455. It was not evidence of the commission of a crime or civil wrong on a specified occasion; it was not offered for the purpose of proving any of the eight factors enumerated in the statute, none of which were in substantial dispute; and there was no good, sound reason for receiving the statement into evidence under 60-455.

¶2The statement does, however, tend to show the appellant’s disposition or inclination to violate the law; but that is a prohibited reason for admitting it under 60-455. If the statement is viewed as evidence of appellant’s character under K.S.A. 60-446 it is inadmissible since appellant did not first offer evidence of his good character and thus put it in issue. K.S.A. 60-447.

¶3It is obvious that the statement was offered solely for impeachment. I do not find it admissible for that purpose. The statement that appellant “was dealing dope” is not contradictory to Presley’s prior testimony that the two balloons of heroin found underneath some women’s clothing in her dresser belonged to her. She said nothing in her direct testimony about appellant being or not being a dealer. Presley was a user, and thus she herself had reason to possess heroin.

¶4Nevertheless, I do not regard the admission in evidence of this one statement as substantially prejudicing appellant’s right to a fair trial. There was no contemporaneous objection, and the trial court was given no opportunity to consider and rule on the admissibility of the statement.

¶5The judgment should be affirmed.

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