Opinion ID: 1199641
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the trial judge erred by refusing to instruct the jury about the weight of the evidence

Text: ¶ 16 In Defendant's first grand jury proceeding and trial, the prosecutor made several statements to the judge effectively conceding that, without Defendant's confession, the state's case was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant moved to have those statements read into evidence at the beginning of the second trial and subsequently incorporated into jury instructions. Defendant argues that the prosecutor's statements constituted judicial admissions and therefore should have been read to the jury as if they were stipulations of the parties. ¶ 17 A judicial admission has been defined as follows: An express waiver made in court or preparatory to trial by the party or his attorney conceding for the purposes of the trial the truth of some alleged fact, has the effect of a confessory pleading, in that the fact is thereafter to be taken for granted; so that the one party need offer no evidence to prove it and the other is not allowed to disprove it.... It is, in truth, a substitute for evidence, in that it does away with the need for evidence. 9 WIGMORE, EVIDENCE § 2588, at 281 (Chadbourn rev.1981) (emphasis added) (cited in Clark Equip. Co. v. Arizona Prop. & Cas. Ins. Guar. Fund, 189 Ariz. 433, 439, 943 P.2d 793, 799 (App.1997)). The prosecutor's statements from the first trial reflect only his opinion of the law, rather than fact, and thus are not judicial admissions. ¶ 18 Defendant also argues that the statements were admissions of a party opponent and should have been read into evidence under Rule 801(d)(2)(C) and (D), Ariz.R.Evid. These rules, however, apply to factual statements by agents or employees, not opinions on law from the state's counsel. Thus, Defendant's argument is without merit.