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United States v. Goldwire
United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
55 M.J. 139 (2001)
Facts
Shawn Goldwire (defendant), an Air Force servicemember, was charged with raping a fellow servicemember. The alleged rape happened at a house party while both parties were intoxicated. At trial, Goldwire did not testify. Special Agent Donald Phillips was called by the prosecution and testified that during an investigation, Goldwire admitted to having sexual intercourse with the alleged victim. On cross-examination, the defense asked Phillips about certain out-of-court statements Goldwire made to Phillips that indicated the alleged victim was participating in the intercourse. To attack the credibility of the admitted hearsay statements, the prosecution (plaintiff) called Sergeant Green to testify to Goldwire’s character for untruthfulness under Federal Rule of Evidence 806. Goldwire was convicted. On appeal, Goldwire argued that testimony regarding his statements to Phillips were an exercise of his rights under the rule of completeness. Therefore, Goldwire argued that that he did not put his credibility in issue by eliciting the testimony from Phillips and that admitting impeachment testimony on his character for truthfulness was not proper.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Crawford, C.J.)
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