Rule 608 - A Witness's Character for Truthfulness or Untruthfulness(a)Reputation or Opinion Evidence. A witness's credibility may be attacked or supported by testimony about the witness's reputation for having a character for truthfulness or untruthfulness, or by testimony in the form of an opinion about that character. But evidence of truthful character is admissible only after the witness's character for truthfulness has been attacked. (b)Specific Instances of Conduct. Except for a criminal conviction under Rule 609, extrinsic evidence is not admissible to prove specific instances of a witness's conduct in order to attack or support the witness's character for truthfulness. But the court may, on cross-examination of a witness other than the accused, allow them to be inquired into if they are probative of the character for truthfulness or untruthfulness of: (2) another witness whose character the witness being cross-examined has testified about. By testifying on another matter, a witness does not waive any privilege against self-incrimination for testimony that relates only to the witness's character for truthfulness.
COMMENT OF RULE 608
Rule 608 was taken verbatim from the federal counterpart with only one substantive change: the use of the phrase "other than the accused" in Rule 608(b), which is contained in the existing state rule.
Note from the Clerk: By order issued on June 23, 2014, the originally published text of Rule 608(a) was corrected due to an error derived from the 2014 Michie's West Virginia Code Annotated, Federal Court Rules Volume (at p. 718). The comment to Rule 608 was updated as well. This document contains the corrected version.
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