Opinion ID: 158618
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Unadjudicated Crimes and Bad Acts Evidence

Text: 69 Mr. Smallwood argues that the introduction of other unadjudicated crimes and bad acts evidence at both the guilt and penalty phases of his trial violated his constitutional rights. Under our circuit precedent, the introduction of unadjudicated offenses at sentencing does not violate a criminal defendant's constitutional rights. See, e.g., Boyd, 179 F.3d at 922; Johnson v. Gibson, 169 F.3d 1239, 1252 (10th Cir. 1999); Hatch v. Oklahoma, 58 F.3d 1447, 1465 (10th Cir. 1995). Consequently, petitioner's argument as it relates to the penalty phase is foreclosed, and we need only address his claim with respect to the guilt phase. 70 The subject of petitioner's claim at the guilt stage involves two pieces of evidence detailing other crimes and bad acts, the admission of which he claims deprived him of his right to due process. The first piece of evidence was testimony by the victim's daughter, Terry Jo Frederick, that Mr. Smallwood had put knives up to her. The second piece of evidence was a letter purportedly written by the victim in which she described Mr. Smallwood as mean and dangerous and stated that he had pawned her TV and VCR, stolen her daughter's car, and destroyed her furniture with a knife. Attached to the letter was a document from the Department of Public Safety showing that Mr. Smallwood had his driver's license revoked for refusing to submit to sobriety tests. Petitioner's counsel objected to the admission of both pieces of evidence, but the trial court overruled the objection. 71 On habeas review, we will not disturb evidentiary findings regarding the admission of prior offenses, crimes, or bad acts evidence unless the prejudice flowing from such evidence is so great as to constitute a denial of federal constitutional rights by rendering the trial fundamentally unfair. See Duvall, 139 F.3d at 787. Mistakenly admitted evidence of prior crimes or convictions can, in some instances, 'imping[e] upon the fundamental fairness of the trial itself.' Id. at 788 (quoting United States v. Parker, 604 F.2d 1327, 1329 (10th Cir. 1979), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Pennon, 816 F.2d 527, 528 (10th Cir. 1987)). A proper instruction by the court may cure the error. See id. In this case, the trial court failed to instruct the jury to disregard the evidence. We must therefore consider the record as a whole to determine whether the admission of the prior unadjudicated bad acts evidence resulted in fundamental unfairness. 72 We conclude that the admission of the unsolicited comment by the victim's daughter concerning prior abuse at the hands of Mr. Smallwood and the admission of the victim's letter did not render petitioner's trial fundamentally unfair. Mr. Smallwood's own testimony established that he was abusive to the victim's daughter. The petitioner also testified on direct examination regarding information in the victim's letter and admitted to taking her daughter's car. Most importantly, petitioner's own testimony leaves no room for doubt that his actions in striking the victim with a croquet mallet, placing her in a car, and setting the car on fire caused the victim's death. In light of these admissions, we find that the evidence, even if inappropriately admitted, was not so prejudicial as to render Mr. Smallwood's trial fundamentally unfair. This is particularly true given the great disparity in seriousness between the unadjudicated bad acts, which involved assault and theft, and the charged crime, a brutal homicide. Therefore, we conclude that, in this case, the admission of the prior bad acts evidence did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation.