Court Opinion

ID: 9462899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:52:57.382051+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:50.423663
License: Public Domain

TUTTLE and CLARK, Circuit Judges
(concurring specially):
We are of the opinion that the trial court erred in its rulings on the evidentiary categories described as (1), (2) and (4) in Part II of Judge Ainsworth’s opinion, but that such errors were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In our opinion there was no substantial need for proof of intent to distribute or for proof of any other purpose permitted by the last sentence of Fed.R. Evid. 404(b) and thus the admission of such evidence over defendant’s clear objection violated this court’s prior decision in United States v. San Martin, 505 F.2d 918 (5th Cir. 1974). We are furthermore of the opinion that both the category (2), contemporaneous comment that allowed the jury to consider the other crimes testimony if it tended to show “a willingness of the defendant to deal in drugs generally,” and the category (4), final instruction to consider such testimony “only if it caused [the jury] to believe that such a person [as the defendant] was more inclined to deal in heroin,” violated the first sentence of Fed.R.Evid. 404(b), which provides, “Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith.”