State v. Silva

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

This appeal concerns the standards that govern the cross-examination of a witness about recent fabrication of alibi testi mony. The specific question is whether the pretrial failure of the witness to volunteer the information to State authorities or investigators allows a jury to draw an inference of recent fabrication. We hold that if a witness appears to know of the charges and would naturally be expected to have come forward with the alibi testimony, the witness may be cross-examined about those circumstances of non-disclosure. In this…