Duncan v. State

George Rose Smith, Justice.

Upon trial by jury the appellant was found guilty of first-degree rape and was sentenced to a 40-year prison term. Two points for reversal are argued.

First, Duncan testified in his own defense. On cross-examination the prosecutor inquired about Duncan’s guilt in a number of earlier instances, this being a typical question: “In March, the 7th of 1954, in Sacramento, California, were you guilty of burglary?” Duncan denied his guilt with respect to all the offenses except a battery committed in California on July 8, 1953. Upon objection the prosecutor admitted, in…