Hall v. Commonwealth

This appeal from a conviction of first-degree murder presents a single question: whether a party whose witness is impeached on cross-examination through use of a prior inconsistent statement is entitled to a cautionary instruction advising the jury that the statement may be considered only as affecting the credibility of the witness, and not as substantive evidence of its content. We answer that question in the affirmative.

In September 1983, Nancy Jane Dudley Maxwell Pugh Hall (whose surname is now Smith) was indicted in the Circuit Court of the City of Lynchburg for the murder on October 31,…