People v. Williams

In this 1977 prosecution for second-degree murder the trial court ruled that if the defendant should testify, the prosecution would be permitted to impeach his credibility by establishing that he had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1972 and of reckless discharge of a firearm resulting in death in 1967. We conclude that the trial court erred in ruling that the testimony of the defendant could be impeached by these prior convictions and that the result of this ruling was to deny the defendant a fair trial.

I

The defendant was tried before a jury on a charge of second-degree murder. He…