Washington v. Commonwealth

PETTY, Judge.

A jury convicted Marcus A. Washington of rape. On appeal, Washington contends the trial court erred in permitting the victim to testify during the Commonwealth’s case-in-chief of the sentencing phase of his trial. He asserts Code § 19.2-295.1 only permitted the Commonwealth to introduce prior convictions during its case-in-chief and the trial judge should have permitted the victim impaet testimony, if at all, as rebuttal evidence. After applying basic rules of statutory construction, we disagree with Washington’s interpretation of the statute; hence, we affirm.

I. Background

Washing…