Court Opinion

ID: 9787211
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:12:40.027349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:53.488542
License: Public Domain

A. JOHNSON, Judge,
concur in results.
{1 The majority opinion states that this court has been consistent for nine decades in holding that a defendant cannot put on evidence that someone else committed the crime without first showing that the other person took some overt act toward the commission of that crime. Nine decades of jurisprudence, however, contains little if any analysis of the reason behind Oklahoma's narrow rule.
2 The majority traces the overt act rule to Irvin v. State, 11 Okla.Crim. 301, 146 P. 453 (1915). Irvin was convicted of murder arising out of a conspiracy and Irvin sought to introduce evidence that someone else had a motive to commit the crime. Irvin was cited early on as holding a defendant may not present evidence incriminating someone else absent a showing of an overt act by that person. This interpretation is a far too narrow reading of the Irvin opinion which states:
While it is competent for the defendant to show, by any legal evidence, that some other person committed the crime with which he is charged, and that he is innocent of any participation in it, such evidence must tend to connect such other person with the commission of the crime charged. An examination of the authorities will show that it is generally held that evidence which could have no further effect than to cast a bare suspicion upon another is incompetent and inadmissible.
Irvin, 146 P. at 464.
13 While an overt act by another toward the commission of the crime charged is one *1279example of evidence which may be competent and admissible on behalf of the defendant, it is not the only example of such evidence. Irvin did not endorse a rule requiring proof of an overt act, but used proof of an overt act as an example of a cireumstance tending to make the evidence of a third party perpetrator substantial enough for admission at trial. See Irvin at 465-66. The Irvin court quoted at length from Horn v. State, 12 Wyo. 80, 73 P. 705 (1903), strongly approving the reasoning of the Wyoming court on the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence, and that court did not adopt the overt act rule.
T4 The overt act rule may appear to give the overworked trial judge a concrete guideline by which to measure the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence. Yet there has been little discussion in our cases of what constitutes an overt act in this sense or of whether such act must be proved by direct evidence. Without such development, clarity may well be an illusion, leaving the trial court to the same arduous weighing process required by jurisdictions without the overt act rule.
15 The purported ease of application, however, is outweighed by the fact that the rule as constituted has the potential, as in this case, to prevent a defendant from presenting evidence critical to his defense. The defendant's right to present evidence is not absolute and the State may place reasonable limitations on the admission of evidence in criminal proceedings. See Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 302, 98 S.Ct. 1038, 1049, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973). Nonetheless, the right to present witnesses to establish a defense is a fundamental element of due process and state evidence rules must yield to this fundamental right when they plainly interfere with a defendant's right to defend against the State's charges. Id.
T6 This case demonstrates the dilemma created by our evidentiary rule on this issue. Evidence of another's culpability may be relevant to the defendant's innocence, competent and admissible, even substantial, but still be excluded because the trial court can find no direct evidence of an overt act. Thus, I concur that this case must be reversed and remanded for new trial, but I would abrogate the requirement that a defendant provide evidence of an overt act before alternate suspect evidence may be admitted.
T7 The judgment and Sentence having been REVERSED AND REMANDED TO THE DISTRICT COURT FOR A NEW TRIAL, now pursuant to Rule 3.15, Rules of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Title 22, Ch. 18, App. (2005), the MANDATE is ORDERED issued upon delivery and filing of this decision.
1 8 I am authorized to state Judge CHARLES S. CHAPEL joins in this opinion and concurs in result.