Johnson v. Commonwealth

In this appeal we again consider the right of a cross-examiner, impeaching the credibility of a witness by proof of prior conviction of a felony, to elicit the name of the felony upon which he relies. Finding that the trial court erred in denying the cross-examiner this right, we reverse.

The defendant, Harold Vann Johnson, Jr., was tried by a jury and convicted of statutory burglary. The Commonwealth proved that the office of a veterinarian in Russell County was entered at night by breaking a window and cutting a screen, and that twenty-four bottles containing pentobarbital were removed by…