DocketNumber: 70997
Citation Numbers: 177 Ga. App. 455, 339 S.E.2d 737
Judges: Deen, Pope
Filed Date: 1/7/1986
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
Thomas Milton Witherspoon IV and Kenneth Ray Robinson bring this appeal from their convictions of burglary. Held:
Appellants’ sole enumeration of error challenges the trial court’s refusal to allow the impeachment of a State’s witness, the victim in this case, by proof of her conviction of two misdemeanor theft charges. It is well settled in this state that a witness may be impeached by proof of conviction of a misdemeanor if it appears that such offense was one involving moral turpitude. See Howard v. State, 144 Ga. 169 (2a) (86 SE 540) (1915); Andrews v. State, 118 Ga. 1 (3) (43 SE 852) (1903). See also Green, Ga. Law of Evidence (2nd ed.), § 139. “Larceny [or theft] is a crimen falsi, and the record of a conviction for larceny is admissible to discredit a witness.”
Judgments affirmed.
“Crimen falsi” is defined as “any . . . offense which involves some element of deceitfulness, untruthfulness, or falsification bearing on a witness’ propensity to testify truthfully.” Black’s Law Dictionary (5th ed.) at 335. It follows that such an offense is also one involving moral turpitude, defined in Ramsey v. State, 145 Ga. App. 60 (4) (243 SE2d 555), rev’d on other grounds, 241 Ga. 426 (246 SE2d 190) (1978), as “an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellow man, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Id. at 62.