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802 S.W.2d 674

Ramirez v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided January 30, 1991

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1991-01-30

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“(a) Opinion and reputation evidence of character. The credibility of a witness may be attacked or supported by evidence in the form of opinion or reputation, but subject to these limitations: (1) the evidence may refer only to character for truthfulness, and (2) evidence of truthful character is admissible only after the character of the witness for truthfulness has been attacked by opinion or reputation evidence or otherwise. (b) Specific instances of conduct. Specific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting his credibility, other than conviction of crime as provided in Rule 609, may not be inquired into on cross-examination of the witness nor proved by extrinsic evidence. A distinction can be drawn between evidence of specific acts offered to infer that a person who engages in conduct of a certain type is not credible and evidence of specific acts offered to show that the witness has actually made a misrepresentation on direct examination in the instant case. As stated by Judge Miller: As long as a party is correcting a false impression made by a witness I would allow that party, pursuant to Rule 607, to utilize for impeachment purposes a specific instance of the witness's conduct. Although Rule 607 does not expressly address this exception, I do not believe the enactment of the Rules of Criminal Evidence abolished it.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Ex Parte Kimes

“There is an exception to the general rule that a party is not entitled to impeach a witness on a collateral matter. When a witness leaves a false impression concerning a matter relating to his or her credibility, the opposing party is allowed to correct that false impression. For example, “when the witness, by his direct testimony, leaves a false impression of his ‘trouble’ with the police, it is legitimate cross-examination to prove that the witness had been ‘in trouble’ on occasions other than those about which he offered direct testimony.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Paez v. State

Relies on Ochoa v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1991-01-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently August 2015 · most notably Moody v. State (1992), Lagrone v. State (1997)

37 state decisions

250199120002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

MILLER, Justice,

¶1concurring.

¶2I agree with the majority opinion’s holding that the State improperly questioned K _R_about her use of heroin during its cross-examination. The majority opinion also correctly points out that Rule 608(b), Tex.R.Crim.Evid., does not allow the use of specific instances of conduct for impeaching the credibility of a witness, except as provided for in Rule 609 which was inapplicable in this case.

¶3I write this opinion to address the impact of the new rules of criminal evidence upon our prior common law rules. On page two of the majority opinion, Judge Teague notes our long-standing general rule that a party is not entitled to impeach a witness on a collateral matter, and the recognized exception to this rule that when a witness leaves a false impression concerning a matter relating to his or her credibility, the opposing party may correct that false impression. As evidenced by the cases cited in the majority opinion, this general rule and its exception were created years prior to the adoption of the Rules of Criminal Evidence.

¶4Rules 608(b) and 609, Tex.R.Crim.Evid., through their codification, bring forward the prior law of Art. 38.29, V.A.C.C.P., repealed September 1, 1986. In doing so, these rules dictate the appropriate procedure when one party seeks to impeach a witness with evidence of a prior specific act of misconduct. Of course it was during the time when Art. 38.29 and its predecessors were in existence that the general rule concerning impeachment on a collateral matter came to be. See generally Ochoa v. State, 481 S.W.2d 847 (Tex.Cr.App.1972). Under the present codification, however, there is no specific rule addressing this common law general rule regarding impeachment on a collateral matter or its attendant exception. My view is that Rule 607 maintains the viability of this general rule and exception and provides the vehicle for such impeachment.

Rule 607 specifically provides:
Rule 607. Who May Impeach
The credibility of a witness may be attacked by any party, including the party calling him.

¶5As long as a party is correcting a false impression made by a witness I would allow that party, pursuant to Rule 607, to utilize for impeachment purposes a specific instance of the witness’s conduct. Although Rule 607 does not expressly address this exception, I do not believe the enactment of the Rules of Criminal Evidence abolished it.

¶6With these comments, I join the majority opinion.

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