Opinion ID: 2630572
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Society's and the Crime Victims' Interests in Admitting Evidence of a Crime Outweigh Maestas's Interests in Excluding the Allocution Statement

Text: ¶ 129 Our system of criminal justice involves not only the rights of the accused, but also the interests of society and of crime victims. Maestas's rights have been given due respect. He was permitted to deny his guilt at trial when this was beneficial to him; he was permitted to admit his guilt at sentencing when that suited him; and he was granted a new trial in the absence of any official misconduct. To now conclude that he also has the right to exclude his voluntary and public admission does not, in my mind, give due respect to the compelling interests of society and the victims of this violent crime to have this highly probative evidence available to the jury on retrial. I would rule that his statement is admissible in the prosecution's case in chief.