Commonwealth v. Gboko, J. No. 708 EDA 2020
Commonwealth v. Gboko is an appeal following a conviction for recklessly endangering another person and possessing an instrument of crime.
In this case, the defendant was approached at a bus stop by two men to attempted to rob him. He attempted to fight back with a pocket knife. In doing so, he swung the knife and attacked an uninvolved bystander. The defendant was charged with aggravate assault, and simple assault in addition to the other charges, but was acquitted of those charges. At his trial, the defendant testified on his own behalf. In addition, a stipulation was issued that he was a law abiding and peaceful person. The defendant requested that the stipulation also include that the defendant was truthful, but the judge declined to do so. This stipulation was admitted after defense counsel attempted to present several witnesses to address the defendants’ good character.
On appeal, the defendant claims the court erred by failing to include truthful in the stipulation. Generally, evidence of a person’s character is not admissible to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with that character. However, in a criminal case, a defendant may offer evidence of the defendant’s pertinent train and if the evidence is admitted, the prosecution may offer evidence to rebut it. But specific evidence of truthful character is only admissible after the witnesses’ character for truthfulness has been attacked. Truthfulness may also be admissible if relevant to the underlying offense. Here, the court found that truthfulness was not relevant to the underlying offense of recklessly endangering another person, and the defendant’s character for truthfulness was never attacked and therefore evidence of character for truthfulness was inadmissible and the trial court did not err in excluding it.
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