Opinion ID: 1894811
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: prior acts of gilbert as they might affect cassey

Text: The defendant Cassey argues that the trial justice erred in not being more specific in his instructions to the jury relating to the limited use it might make of prior bad acts on the part of Gilbert that were not charged in the indictment. As part of her argument relating to the failure to grant severance, defendant Cassey suggests that other evidence relating to Gilbert's requiring Ted to engage in sexual play with his brother, Marcus, his sister, Anny, and the family dog could have spilled over into her case and be used by the jury against her. We have examined the entire charge given by the trial justice and find his outline of the three charges against each defendant as specific as the use of the English language would make possible. Not only did he specify in the most vivid terms the offenses with which each defendant was charged but in addition he sent to the jury room, for the use of the jurors during their deliberations, a breakdown in crystal clear language of the charge against each defendant. Examining the charge of the trial justice taken as a whole, we conclude that the trial justice did everything humanly possible to separate out the specific offenses with which each defendant was charged. Since the evidence concerning Gilbert's sexual play with the child, his brother and sister and the family dog, did not purport to involve defendant Cassey in any way, there seems no basis to infer that the jury would consider such evidence against Cassey. The encomiums with which the right to jury trial has been expressed, see, e.g, Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491, reh'g denied, 392 U.S. 947, 88 S.Ct. 2270, 20 L.Ed.2d 1412 (1968), presuppose that jurors are eminently able to perform the task of determining the facts in a given case, relying upon the evidence submitted. To suggest that jurors in a joint trial would apply evidence obviously inapplicable to one of the defendants in determining the guilt or innocence of that defendant would only support the assumption that jurors are unable to perform the simplest task that may be submitted to them. In our opinion the instructions of the trial justice amply indicated the charges against each defendant and the evidence that should be used in regard to each charge to determine guilt or innocence of the major charge or lesser included offenses.