# Fields v. State

> Alaska Supreme Court · August 6, 1971 · 487 P.2d 831

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533222

## Case

- **Full name:** Eugene P. FIELDS and Joseph P. Bassett, Appellants, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee
- **Court:** Alaska Supreme Court
- **Decided:** August 6, 1971
- **Citations:** 487 P.2d 831; 65 A.L.R. 3d 680; 1971 Alas. LEXIS 256
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Connor
- **Judges:** Boney, Dimond, Rabinowitz, Connor, Lewis, Erwin
- **Cited by:** 55 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533222

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that “coercive tendency of the Allen charge requires that its use be discontinued in this state” and requiring that any jury instruction to continue deliberations must comply with ABA standards

## Opinion text

CONNOR, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I agree with the majority opinion except that portion which holds it error to exclude the testimony of the witnesses Chambers and McGalliard, elicited for the purpose of impeaching the witness Perry.
The testimony about Perry using or admitting to the use of narcotics is so remote from the critical events in this case that it could not, in my opinion, establish a drug-caused, faculative impairment at the times critical to Perry’s testimony.
The exclusion of the testimony of these witnesses about Perry’s reputation for truth and veracity is, in my view, harmless error. Perry’s reputation was thoroughly impeached by his own testimony. When asked on the witness stand whether he had not always been a law-abiding citizen, Perry answered, “No, I don’t believe I’ve ever been one.” And while he would not quite admit to being a professional criminal, he did allow that he had committed “quite a few crimes,” and had been convicted of at least three or four burglaries. Moreover, he admitted to complicity in the case at bar. He testified that he had gone to Moose Pass with the intention of burglarizing Warburton’s store, but had failed to do it because he did not think he could get away with it. At a later point he discussed the feasibility of burglarizing the shop with Fields and Bassett. Perry testified that he willingly took charge of selling the stolen gold after the jewelry shop was burglarized. Lastly, Perry admitted to being promised immunity in this and other *848 cases if he “blew the whistle” on Bassett and Fields.
In the light of such testimony, either the admission or exclusion of the rather anemic testimony about Perry’s reputation for truthfulness becomes something of a superfluity.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533222. Public record. Not legal advice.