People v. Clark

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of the crime of robbery and from an order denying the-motion of defendant for a new trial.

[1] At the trial the court, over the objection of appellant, admitted the testimony of certain witnesses concerning the general reputation of appellant for truth, honesty and integrity. Appellant contends that, as he offered no evidence of his character, the trial court was in error in admitting the testimony in question. In making this point appellant overlooks the distinction between the status of a party to an action, strictly as such, and the position occupied by a party when he becomes a witness. Here appellant took the witness-stand in his own behalf and the evidence to which objection is made was admitted after he had done so. The exact point now urged by appellant was passed upon by us in a recent case. “From a very early date it has been held, time and again, that when the defendant in a criminal ease testifies for himself . . . he, for the time being, removes from himself the character of a defendant, and takes on that of a witness. He becomes ‘subject to the same rules for testing his credibility before the jury, by impeachment or…