People v. Garth

*313Danhof, C.J.

This case raises one important issue concerning impeachment of a defendant’s credibility by evidence of his prior conviction: Rather than allowing impeachment by proof of a specifically described prior felony conviction or completely excluding any evidence of the conviction, may a trial judge in his or her discretion permit the trier of fact to be informed only that the defendant had committed a prior nonspecified "felony”?1

Defendants were charged with breaking and entering any occupied dwelling with intent to commit larceny, MCL 750.110; MSA 28.305, and larceny in a building, MCL…