What is the test for evidence of inconsistency in a witness's prior statement?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Solorzano, B285169 (Cal. App. 2018):

Inconsistency in effect, not contradiction in express terms, is required for evidence of a witness's prior statement to fall within the scope of Evidence Code section 1235. (People v. Homick (2012) 55 Cal.4th 816, 859.) "'"[W]hen a witness's claim of lack of memory amounts to deliberate evasion, inconsistency is implied. [Citation.] As long as there is a reasonable basis in the record for concluding that the witness's 'I don't remember' statements are evasive and untruthful, admission of his or her prior statements is proper."'" (Ibid.; see People v. Bryant (2014) 60 Cal.4th 335, 415 [affirming trial court's admission of witness's statements as prior inconsistent statements because the trial

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court "reasonably found" the witness's claimed failure of recollection was "actually a deliberate evasion tantamount to a denial"].)

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