People v. Hults

Hancock, Jr., J.

(dissenting). Defendant was convicted on the testimony of one witness: the complainant. The defense at trial was misidentification and the complainant’s hypnotic statement was critical to it. The descriptions of the assailant given by the complainant, both at the police station and in her trial testimony, did not completely fit defendant, and the description she gave while under hypnosis was plainly exculpatory. The trial court barred defense counsel from using the complainant’s hypnotic statement to impeach her, and the majority of our court now upholds that ruling on the…