Opinion ID: 2574845
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Crimes Dismissed for Lack of Evidence or Misidentification

Text: Hay held that even uncharged prior crimes may be admissible against a respondent in a sexually violent predator commitment proceeding. Miller's argument here is distinct and intuitively appealing: Evidence of a prior charge that has been dismissed for lack of evidence or misidentification misleads a jury and denies a respondent a fair trial. In the abstract, we agree that the State's sponsorship of evidence of crimes with which a respondent has been charged but that have later been dismissed for lack of evidence or misidentification is playing with fire. The problem for Miller is that it appears from the record before us that any misdirection of his jury's attention was temporary and corrected before the jury began its deliberation. As our Court of Appeals noted, the district judge admitted a letter confirming that the attempted rape charge filed in the 1992 burglary had been dismissed. Donahue testified that the 1976 sex crime charges were dismissed when someone other than Miller confessed to the crimes. Donahue also mentioned that another charge included in his recitation was dismissed. We therefore are not persuaded that any knowledge the jury had about specifics in Miller's charging and conviction history was inaccurate or that, in the context of his comprehensive, criminal career, it denied him a fair trial.