Opinion ID: 363087
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motive and Intent

Text: 133 On the question of motive to commit murder, the Government wants to show that Day and Williams had been arguing prior to the shooting. That, of course, could be done without mentioning any prior criminality, 12 so it is suggested further that the two were bickering over the shotguns. But that fact, for all we have yet been shown, could be established without any reference whatever to the robbery. Though it is contended that the jurors need to know how the shotguns were acquired, I must simply ask why, and I have yet to hear a palatable answer. 134 The disagreement between Day and Williams was allegedly over guns And some coats And whether Williams should have asked Day why he was using drugs. Yet the Government apparently has no desire to show how the jackets were originally acquired, or for that matter how Day first started to use narcotics. Should the prosecutor undertake to prove that the coats over which Day and the victim had quarreled all had been lawfully purchased at a department store, would anyone dispute a ruling that the line of questioning was irrelevant? Surely not. The end promotable by evidence of the origin of the guns, and the Only end, is that knowledge of that illicit acquisition will poison the jury against Day. The District Judge quite properly noted that the dispute was not over the Irving's robbery or the theft of the automobile themselves, and I agree with him that the prosecutor did not demonstrate that there is a relationship between the robbery in terms of what he is actually endeavoring to show, namely, that there was ill will, a dispute or controversy between the decedent and the Defendant Day. 13 135 The court embraces the Government's argument on motive by reliance on the shibboleth that (t)hieves will out. 14 Under this theory, no competent evidence need be proffered or introduced to show that Day and Williams had a falling out stemming from one of their earlier criminal enterprises. Rather, prior criminal activity is considered ipso facto probative of motive, and the rule that evidence of the accused's past crimes is inadmissible to prove a general criminal disposition is swallowed by the motive exception in cases where the victim of the crime and the defendant were former colleagues in criminal endeavors. 15 136 The traditional rationale for the motive exception is that (e)vidence of other crimes is admitted to show that defendant has a reason for having the requisite state of mind to do the act charged, and from this mental state it is inferred that he did commit the act. 16 The court adopts an inverted view, reasoning that the motive may be inferred from the killing itself, (g)iven the criminal relationship between the parties and their theft of the guns and the car. 17 137 More troubling, no evidence of a disagreement between Day and Williams is required. The basis for the court's ruling is its theory of human behavior thieves are prone to fighting and killing each other. Thus boiled down, the court's thesis seems indistinguishable from the not unnatural jury inference that Rule 404(b) is designed to guard against: that an accused with a criminal past is probably guilty. 18 138 The majority also says that the evidence was admissible to prove intent because it is probative of a plan to commit the crimes with which Day is charged. A criminal, it is said, would want to saw off stolen shotguns since they then could not be traced to him through records attending legitimate purchases. Similarly, it is added, a person contemplating use of an automobile in a murder plot would want to use a stolen one to conceal his participation. I agree that the shotgun evidence might barely meet the minimal relevancy standards of Rule 401 for the purpose proposed by the court, but the District Judge would still have to determine whether its value was outweighed by its potential for prejudice. 19 And I am unable to accept at all the court's hypothesis with respect to the automobile theft, for I believe an inference of a murder scheme, in the absence of even a single piece of evidence thereof, is unwarranted. Any such deduction, though a possible analysis of human behavior, is not a substitute for probative evidence. 139 The court informs the District Judge that his inadmissibility-ruling on the ground of irrelevancy was both premature and overbroad 20 because the Government should have the opportunity to lay a proper foundation for the evidence. If the judge's action was premature, it was so simply because the Government requested a pretrial decision and did not fulfill Its burden of advancing adequate ground for the ruling desired. If the Government could have come up with better reasons, if could always have gone back before the District Judge and sought modification of the earlier order. I think it a serious waste of judicial resources for us to be called upon to do what the prosecution should have requested in the District Court. Furthermore, the rationale now advanced by the majority was never driven home to the District Judge. In my view, he was correct on every point upon which he passed but nonetheless he now is somehow being reversed in part.