State v. McAboy

Miller, Justice:

The defendant, Jackie Lee McAboy, appeals his second degree murder conviction and assigns as principal error that the trial court committed reversible error when it permitted the State to attempt to impeach his credibility by questioning him as to a prior felony conviction.

We agree and hold that evidence of prior convictions to impeach the credibility of a defendant in a criminal trial is henceforth not permissible, except as hereinafter noted.1

Originally, this Court followed the rule that prior criminal convictions could not be used to impeach the defendant’s credibility when…