Opinion ID: 1842904
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unadjudicated Conduct after Majority

Text: The case of State v. Ward, 483 So.2d 578 (La.1986), presented the issue whether the prosecutor in the case-in-chief in a capital sentencing hearing may introduce evidence of defendant's unrelated criminal conduct on which no conviction has been obtained. The defendant had shot his wife's mother and stepfather, killing one and seriously wounding the other. During the sentencing hearing the prosecutor introduced evidence in the case-in-chief of the defendant's convictions of attempted burglary, misdemeanor rape, third degree assault, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (his sister-in-law), and cruelty to a juvenile (his daughter). Many of these convictions resulted from guilty pleas to reduced charges involving sexual misconduct and violence with family members, and the original charges were also introduced. Further, defendant's wife and sister-in-law testified about various sexual encounters between defendant and the wife's relatives, and the wife and her brother testified that each had been violently beaten by defendant. Relying on Sawyer and Jordan, this court unanimously refused to set aside the death sentence because of the introduction of evidence both of the convictions and charges and of the conduct for which defendant was neither charged nor convicted (the latter being crimes of sex and violence identical to those charges resulting in plea bargains). The court concluded that the overall evidence relating to convictions and unadjudicated conduct portrayed an entire family that was either physically or sexually abused by the defendant, so that there was no surprise, undue prejudice or arbitrary factor injected into the jury's deliberations. The concurring opinion suggested that admission of the evidence of charged but unadjudicated crimes (bills of information) was harmless error and the admission of the uncharged and unadjudicated criminal conduct was admissible under proper safeguards similar to those used for other crimes evidence in non-capital trials. In State v. Brooks, 541 So.2d 801 (La. 1989), the defendant had been indicted for eight unrelated murders. In the trial on the first four counts the jury was unable to reach an unanimous verdict, and the court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. In the trial on two of the remaining counts the defense sought to exclude the evidence both of the four murder convictions and the two other charged but unadjudicated murders. As to the charged but unadjudicated criminal conduct, this court held that evidence of unadjudicated crimes by defendant may be relevant and helpful to the jury in determining the appropriate sentence. [7] Such evidence is admissible once the trial judge determines: (1) the evidence of defendant's connection with commission of the unrelated crimes is clear and convincing, (2) the proffered evidence is otherwise competent and reliable, and (3) the unrelated crimes have relevance and substantial probative value as to the defendant's character and propensities, which is focus of the sentencing hearing under Article 905.2. [8] In the present case we reaffirm our holding in Brooks, but again deem it necessary to place a limitation on this type of evidence in order to insure that due process is not violated by the injection of arbitrary factors into the jury's deliberations and to prevent a confusing or unmanageable series of mini-trials of unrelated and unadjudicated conduct during the sentencing hearing. As to the seriousness of the crime, we limit the criminal conduct on which the prosecutor may introduce evidence in the case-in-chief in the capital sentencing hearing to that which involves violence against the person of the victim. The propensity to commit first degree murder is the focus of the capital sentencing hearing. While crimes of violence against the person indicate moral qualities and character traits pertinent to the propensity to commit first degree murder, other types of crimes are not necessarily probative of that propensity and are less relevant in a capital sentencing hearing. [9] Recognizing that remoteness of the conduct may also bear on relevance, we further limit the criminal conduct on which the prosecutor may introduce evidence to that conduct for which the period of limitation for instituting prosecution had not run at the time of the indictment of the accused for the first degree murder for which he is being tried. This limitation prevents a capital defendant from having to defend criminal charges that the prosecutor would not otherwise have been able to bring, while also achieving efficiency by allowing the prosecutor in the sentencing hearing to use evidence of recent criminal conduct without burdening the system by a requirement that the prosecutor obtain a conviction for that conduct prior to using evidence of that conduct in the penalty phase of the first degree murder trial.