Opinion ID: 2096207
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History of the Exception

Text: It has long been settled that in prosecutions for incest, sodomy, criminal deviate conduct or child molesting, evidence of certain kinds of prior sexual conduct is admissible under Indiana's depraved sexual instinct exception to the general rule of inadmissibility of prior bad acts. See Stewart v. State (1990), Ind., 555 N.E.2d 121; State v. Robbins (1943), 221 Ind. 125, 46 N.E.2d 691; State v. Markins (1884), 95 Ind. 464. This exception has been carved out of the general rule for two reasons. First, the exception has been based on a recidivist rationale: `Acts showing a perverted sexual instinct are circumstances which with other circumstances may have a tendency to connect an accused with a crime of that character.' Kerlin v. State (1970), 255 Ind. 420, 424, 265 N.E.2d 22, 25 (quoting Lovely v. United States, 169 F.2d 386, 390 (4th Cir.1948)). Second, the exception has been based on the need to bolster the testimony of victims: to lend credence to a victim's accusations or testimony which describe acts which would otherwise seem improbable standing alone. Stwalley v. State (1989), Ind., 534 N.E.2d 229, 231. The desire to level the playing field by bolstering the testimony of a solitary child victim-witness (recounting unspeakable acts, often in embarrassing detail in the intimidating forum of a courtroom while subject to aggressive cross-examination) was central to the holding in Robbins, the forerunner in a long line of modern era cases developing the depraved sexual instinct exception. [1] In Robbins, the defendant was the superior court judge in Vincennes during the late 1930s. He was indicted on two counts of sodomy with a twelve-year-old girl. The case might fairly have been characterized as a credibility contest between a child and a pillar of the community. To even up this contest, the State sought to introduce testimony from other children regarding other instances of sexual misconduct committed by the defendant against children. The trial court excluded the evidence; this Court held that the testimony of the other children should have been allowed. [2] Indiana has not stood alone in fashioning exceptions to the rules of evidence in cases where children are victims of sexual abuse. Approximately twenty other states have or have had such exceptions. [3] Some, such as Missouri and Kansas, explicitly recognize a depraved sexual instinct exception, State v. Lachterman, 812 S.W.2d 759 (Mo. Ct. App. 1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1666, 118 L.Ed.2d 387 (1992), or allow evidence of prior bad acts to prove defendant's lustful disposition or nature. State v. Whiting, 173 Kan. 711, 252 P.2d 884 (1953). Others, such as Illinois, South Dakota and Wisconsin, follow rules similar to Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), [4] but stretch the definition of the common scheme and plan doctrine to allow prior occurrences of sexual misconduct into evidence, in effect to prove proclivity. See People v. Partin, 156 Ill. App.3d 365, 509 N.E.2d 662 (1987); State v. Means, 363 N.W.2d 565 (S.D. 1985); State v. Friedrich, 135 Wis.2d 1, 398 N.W.2d 763 (1987). One court has likened this contortion of the traditional 404(b) exceptions to forcing a square peg into a round hole. Lachterman, 812 S.W.2d at 768. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has been particularly forthright in explaining the justification for what has come to be known in that state as the greater latitude doctrine. Friedrich, 398 N.W.2d at 775. The justification is, quite simply, protection of children, the most sexually vulnerable in society. Like our Court in Robbins, Wisconsin has sought to level the playing field in service to the desirable social end of convicting child molesters: Because of immaturity, fear and embarrassment, sexually abused children find it difficult to testify. It is for this reason that much is being written of late about the necessity of support activities to make the taking of a statement less traumatic. Among these proposals are video taping their examinations and cross-examinations and allowing appropriate support persons to be present to make the ordeal of reliving and reciting their exploitation less difficult. [5] These are among the reasons why a more liberal admission of other crimes evidence is the rule in Wisconsin on sex crime cases. Id. 398 N.W.2d at 776 (emphasis added).