Chapter 9 - § 9.4 • REHABILITATION AND VOUCHING OR BOLSTERING

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 9.4 • REHABILITATION AND VOUCHING OR BOLSTERING

Understanding the concept of "vouching" or "bolstering" (vouching as used here is the extrinsic testimony as to the credibility of a witness's trial testimony and is a subset of bolstering as used here) and how it operates is essential to proper practice in the area of witness rehabilitation. This is especially true in syndrome cases (see § 9.9), where the extant syndrome may present inherent victim credibility challenges and yet where the outcome of the case may turn on the victim-witness's credibility.

While the purpose of impeachment is to generate the inference that a specific incourt statement of a witness is unreliable, rehabilitation cannot involve directly bolstering the credibility of the specific in-court statement. Rather, rehabilitation presents a totality of circumstances intended to blunt the inference that the in-court statement lacked credibility. Rehabilitation thus involves a generalized boosting of witness credibility, but it is for the trier, armed with all the information, to make a determination whether the witness's testimony at trial is to be believed.

Thus, as to fact witnesses, credibility may not be boosted (again, with exceptions) through rehabilitation or otherwise until the credibility of the witness has been impeached, and when rehabilitation occurs, it may not directly address the witness's credibility with regard to a...