California Rules Of Impeaching Witness

Impeaching witnesses is one of the ways to inquire into the credibility of testimony under the adversary system.California has established a series of rules on the impeachment of witness.The enactment of the California Evidence Code made common-law rules of voucher rule and collateral facts rule abolished,and a series of techniques for impeaching a witness' credibility were acknowledged by evidence code and case law.Although most of these rules are similar to those in the Federal Rules of Evidence,in many instances there are sharp differences between the Evidence Code and Federal Rule provisions governing the same issue.For example,while California Evidence Code absolutely precludes questioning about prior untruthful acts that have not resulted in a conviction,according to Federal Rule of Evidence,the cross-examiner may ask a witness whether the witness had performed an act probative of the character for untruthfulness.If the witness denies performing the act,it forbids the opposing attorney from later introducing “extrinsic evidence” to expose the perjury.These differences—with varying degrees—reflect different policy choices made by lawmakers and different values that they aspire to under certain historical background.However,the provisions on examining the credibility of testimony in Chinese criminal procedure law are not only incomprehensive,but also not feasible.In recent years,China is actively implementing the trial-centered litigation system reform and continuously absorbing confrontational factors.In this context,witness impeachment rules can offer a lot of useful references for improving the testimony examining system of China.The unique designs of the California witness impeachment rules—especially when the policy choices and value pursuits behind these designs are in line with the current state of criminal proceedings in China—can in part inspire us in improving the testimony examining system of China.This paper is divided into the following four parts:The first part introduces the two general rules of witness impeachment-the voucher rule and collateral facts rule-and its status in California.First,we introduce the voucher rule in the common law,including its historical background,theoretical basis,exceptions and its status in California.After that,we introduce the collateral facts rule,including the common principles,limits of the rules in the common law,and their current situation in California.After the introduction of the two rules,they were compared with the relevant provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence.The second part introduces California's impeachment skills on the honest character of witnesses,which includes using reputation and opinion evidence to impeach,using misconducts of witnesses which did not lead to conviction to impeach,and using criminal convictions to impeach.After each of the impeachment techniques was introduced,they were compared with the relevant provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence.The third part introduces California's four other impeachment techniques on the credibility of witnesses.Including proof of the existence of specific contradiction,proof of the existence of bias,proving that the witnesses have made a previously inconsistent statement and proving that the witnesses bear perceiving,memory and narrative deficiencies.After each of the impeachment techniques was introduced,they were compared with the relevant provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence.The fourth part expounds the enlightenment of California witnesses' impeachment rule on our criminal procedure.First,we analyze the reasonof the difference between the California Witnesses' Impeachment Rules and the relevant provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence.Secondly,we analyze the the testimony examining system in our criminal procedure.Finally,we elaborate the inspiration of California witnesses' impeachment rules to perfect the testimony system of testimony in our country,and puts forward two suggestions for perfecting the system of testimony for the country.