People v. McBride

At the defendant’s trial on six counts of uttering and publishing forged instruments, 1 he moved to exclude reference to his prior conviction of counterfeiting. 2 The trial court ruled that if the defendant testified, his credibility as a witness could be impeached by evidence that the defendant had previously been convicted of a felony without informing the jury of the nature of that felony. The defendant ultimately did not testify. He contends that the ruling of the trial court in this regard prompted this decision. We conclude that the trial court’s ruling was erroneous and that the error…