Opinion ID: 1414169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: prior crimes evidence and due process

Text: The next issue is whether the aggravated sexual abuse provision in § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) violates due process. We consider first the federal constitution. The United States Supreme Court has addressed the admissibility of prior crimes evidence in the context of state habitual criminal statutes. Spencer v. Texas, 385 U.S. 554, 87 S.Ct. 648, 17 L.Ed.2d 606 (1967), held that the introduction of other convictions evidence to obtain a conviction under a state recidivism statute, despite the danger of unfair prejudice, is not a violation of due process when a limiting instruction is given to the jury. Id. at 563, 87 S.Ct. at 653. See also Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 438 n. 6, 103 S.Ct. 843, 853 n. 6, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983) (reaffirming Spencer ). The Court concluded that even though severance or bifurcation might result in less prejudice to the defendant in such cases, due process did not impose such requirements. We turn next to the due process clause of the Utah Constitution. This Court has frequently reiterated the long-established proposition that a person may be tried only for specific conduct and not because he or she has a bad character or a disposition to commit crime. The cases have all been decided under the rules of evidence in force at the time (all of which have been similar in their effect). State v. Tarafa, 720 P.2d 1368, 1369-70 (Utah 1986); State v. Saunders, 699 P.2d 738, 741-42 (Utah 1985); State v. McCumber, 622 P.2d 353, 356 n. 10 (Utah 1980); State v. Gotfrey, 598 P.2d 1325, 1328 (Utah 1979); State v. Winget, 6 Utah 2d 243, 244, 310 P.2d 738, 739 (1957); State v. Nemier, 106 Utah 307, 312, 148 P.2d 327, 329 (1944); State v. Williams, 36 Utah 273, 277-78, 103 P. 250, 252 (1909). [O]ur criminal justice system is concerned with whether a defendant committed a particular criminal act, not whether the defendant is an unregenerate person who has failed in the past to adhere to the various customs and laws of our society. State v. Tanner, 675 P.2d 539, 554 (Utah 1983) (Stewart, J., dissenting). When a person stands accused of a sex crime, this Court has uniformly rejected the admission of evidence that the defendant committed other sex crimes against persons other than the complaining witness. For example, State v. Williams, 36 Utah 273, 103 P. 250 (1909), reversed the defendant's conviction of rape of a child where the prosecutrix testified that the defendant told her he had done the same thing to other girls and where the prosecutor was allowed to cross-examine the defendant concerning these other alleged incidents. State v. Winget, 6 Utah 2d 243, 310 P.2d 738 (1957), reversed a conviction for rape of the defendant's daughter because the trial court admitted the testimony that the defendant had raped his seventeen-year-old stepdaughter on four occasions four to eight years earlier. We have even gone as far as to suggest that the joinder of unrelated crimes for trial may jeopardize a defendant's fundamental rights of due process. State v. McCumber, 622 P.2d 353, 356 (Utah 1980). Cf. State v. Tarafa, 720 P.2d 1368; State v. Saunders, 699 P.2d 738; State v. Gotfrey, 598 P.2d 1325. Recently, in State v. Bishop, 753 P.2d 439 (Utah 1988), the Court considered the admission of other crimes evidence under the aggravated sexual abuse statute as it existed prior to its amendment in 1984. The statute provided for enhanced penalties for a convicted person who had, in addition to the principal offense, also committed more than five separate offenses [of sexual abuse] under this section... . Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) (Supp. 1983). A majority of the Court held that the plain meaning of the term in the statute required that a jury first convict on the primary charge and only then could the jury hear evidence of the acts constituting aggravated sexual abuse and render a decision accordingly. 753 P.2d at 489, 491, 494-99 (opinions of Zimmerman, J., concurring in the result, and Stewart, A.C.J., and Durham, J., concurring in the opinion of Zimmerman, J.). Thus, three members of the Court in Bishop concluded that the language of the pre-1984 statute required a two-stage trial, i.e., an initial trial with respect to the evidence relating to the primary offense, and once that was found by the trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt, a subsequent trial on the issue of the aggravating circumstances. Relying on Tarafa, Saunders, and McCumber, Justice Zimmerman, joined by Justice Durham, also concluded in Bishop that the admission of other crimes evidence under former § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) violated the defendant's right to due process under the Utah Constitution and necessitated bifurcation under § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) as it now reads. 753 P.2d at 498. The author of the instant opinion thought it unnecessary to reach that issue and declined to do so. 753 P.2d at 491 (Stewart, A.C.J., concurring). Even though Tarafa, Saunders, and McCumber suggest that due process may be violated in some circumstances by the admission of other crimes evidence at the guilt stage, and even though there may be great danger of undue prejudice in admitting such evidence, we decline to decide whether the admission of such evidence in this case violates the due process clause of our federal or state constitution. Certainly, Bishop does not compel this conclusion, since the statutory term convicted person suggested a legislative intent that the aggravating crime evidence come in after a verdict of guilty on the charge of sexual abuse, thereby minimizing the possibility of prejudice. Nevertheless, the courts have traditionally, and by necessity, had the power to control the order of proof in the interests of justice, fairness, and efficiency. The imposition of a bifurcation requirement to prevent prejudice is consistent with the power of this Court to supervise the order of presentation of evidence and other procedural matters. See, e.g., Bishop, 753 P.2d at 499 (Zimmerman, J., concurring in the result); Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d 51, 53-54 (Utah 1982). See also State v. James, 767 P.2d 549 (Utah 1989); In re Criminal Investigation, 754 P.2d 633, 640-44 (Utah 1988); State v. Lafferty, 749 P.2d 1239, 1259-60 (Utah 1988); State v. Long, 721 P.2d 483, 492 (Utah 1986). Utilization of the court's supervisory power is consistent with our policy of seeking not to decide constitutional issues when possible. It provides an alternative to deciding the constitutional issue and still avoids at least some of the taint of prejudice that comes from the admission of evidence of multiple crimes. See State v. McCumber, 622 P.2d 353 (Utah 1980); State v. Gotfrey, 598 P.2d 1325 (Utah 1979). The Legislature has not, in our view, precluded such an approach. The current statutory language refers to other acts committed by the accused, rather than the convicted person. The term accused in the present statute implies neither a single stage procedure nor a bifurcated procedure for considering evidence of aggravating acts of child abuse. In light of the long-standing hostility of Utah law to the admission of evidence of other unrelated crimes except in narrow circumstances, and absent a clear indication from the Legislature indicating that § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) was intended to be implemented in a one-step trial, which would then force us to address the constitutional issue, we believe that bifurcation is appropriate. Thus, a defendant's guilt or innocence on the primary charge of sexual abuse should first be determined by the trier of fact before evidence of the aggravating acts are adduced under subsection (3)(g) of the amended statute. [2] If the jury convicts on the primary charge, then evidence of the additional acts charged should be adduced and a second verdict returned determining whether the defendant is guilty of aggravated sexual abuse or simple sexual abuse. Two additional requirements are implicit in the procedure set forth in Bishop. First, the jury should not be informed of the charge of aggravated sexual abuse at the outset of the trial of the underlying charge. The jury should only be informed of the underlying charge of sexual abuse. Also, a limiting instruction should be given to the jury at the close of the second phase instructing the jury that it is not to consider the defendant's conviction of the primary crime in determining whether each of the aggravating circumstances has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. We recognize that this procedure cannot avert all prejudice. The second phase of the trial may be tainted to some extent by the first phase, and in any event, if there are allegations of multiple aggravating acts of sexual abuse in the second phase, they will cross-contaminate the jury's consideration of each such charge in the second phase. Nevertheless, if the State wins the first phase, the defendant will at least have had the benefit of a determination made without the crushing weight of a multitude of prejudicial charges and evidence in support thereof. If the State loses the first charge, it might be able to file again on one of the instances constituting aggravated sexual abuse without violating the double jeopardy clause. Nevertheless, a number of repetitive charges after prior acquittals might well run afoul of the Utah due process clause. In short, because this case can be decided on the preferred ground of statutory construction, we decline to reach the issue of whether § 76-5-404.1(3)(g) is invalid on state constitutional grounds. See Greaves v. State, 528 P.2d 805, 806-07 (Utah 1974). In sum, the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of defendant's two older daughters that he had sexually abused them before the jury decided whether defendant had committed the primary charge alleged against him.