Court Opinion

ID: 9665073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:38:32.446014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:12.664095
License: Public Domain

LAVORATO, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
Although I agree with the result the majority reaches, I disagree in how it reached that result. My disagreement is this: Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, the State did not articulate a valid, noncharacter theory of admissibility for admission of the defendant’s prior conviction for possession of marijuana. Therefore, it was error to admit such evidence. For that reason, we never reach the balancing question under Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.403. My reasons for saying so follow.
Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.404(6) controls admissibility of bad-acts evidence. It provides:
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that the person acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible *14for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.
Iowa R. Evid. 5.404(6). As we noted in State v. Sullivan, “[r]ule 5.404(6) codifies our common law on bad-acts evidence and is the counterpart to Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b).” 679 N.W.2d 19, 23 (Iowa 2004).
Courts “have long followed' the rule against admitting bad-acts evidence to show ‘that the defendant has a criminal disposition in order to generate the inference that he committed the crime with which he is charged.’” Id. (citation.omitted). They have done so because “ ‘[a] concomitant of the presumption of innocence is that a defendant must be tried for what he did, not for who he is.’-” Id. (citation omitted); see also United States v. Daniels, 770 F.2d 1111 (D.C.Cir.1985) (“[Ojnce evidence of prior crimes reaches the jury, ‘it is most difficult, if not impossible, to assume continued integrity of the presumption of innocence.’ ” (citation omitted)).
The policy against not admitting bad-acts evidence' is not because such evidence has no probative value, but because it has very substantial value not recognized in the law. Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 24. This is especially so, as the majority points out, when similar bad-acts evidence is introduced. Such evidence has a powerful and prejudicial impact as well as presenting the great likelihood that the jury will use the evidence exactly for the purpose it may not be used — to convict the defendant because he or she is a bad person. Id. at 30. So it is not surprising that empirical studies confirm the fact that juries treat bad-acts evidence as highly probative. Id. at 24; I John W. Strong, McCormick on Evidence § 190, at 659 n. 5 (5th ed. 1999) (citing study that determined “when a defendant’s criminal record is known and the prosecution’s case has contradictions, the defendant’s chances of acquittal are 38% compared to 68% otherwise”) [hereinafter McCormick on Evidence ]. They do so because common sense tells a juror that one who has acted criminally in the past probably may act the same way again. However, contrary to popular belief, empirical studies also show that a person’s character is not a good indicator of a person’s actions on a given occasion. Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 24.
We recognize that rule 5.404(6) is an exclusionary rule. Id.; State v. Barrett, 401 N.W.2d 184, 187 (Iowa 1987). This means that evidence of a defendant’s other bad acts will be excluded under the first sentence of the rule when such evidence is offered by the prosecution to prove that the defendant has a criminal disposition or a propensity to commit a crime. Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 25. The second sentence.of the rule creates an exception for evidence offered not to prove character but to prove some relevant issue in the case, such as motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. Id. at 24-25. However, one writer would not characterize the second sentence as a list of exceptions:
[TJhere are no exceptions to the forbidden inference of rule 404(b). It may never be used by a litigant.... The second sentence of rule 404(b) merely contains a suggestive, nonexhaustive list of traditionally applied theories of relevance that do not capitalize upon the prohibited inference designated in the first sentence of the rule.
Glen Weissenberger, Making Sense of Extrinsic Act Evidence: Federal Rule of Evidence 4.01(b), 70 Iowa L. Rev. 579, 595 n. 47 (1985) [hereinafter Weissenberger].
This writer also suggests that the first sentence of rule 5.404(6)
*15makes sense because ... the rule represents a recognition of the unfairness of placing the accused in a position of rebutting extrinsic antisocial acts when directed against him pursuant to a propensity theory. More than just creating a risk of the jury reacting emotionally and punitively to an accused’s past misdeeds, when confronted with the act-propensity-act inference the accused is placed in the posture of arguing to the jury that its collective common sense should be disregarded. The accused has little basis for rebutting the evidence except by challenging the force of the propensity inference itself, and the greater its probative value, the more difficult it is for him to bring himself within the ever narrowing class of persons in regard to whom the inference is conceivably inapplicable. The accused must try to demonstrate that the very notion of probative value is inapplicable to him; he is forced to prove that his case is the anomaly.
Weissenberger at 608. This becomes even more problematic for the defendant in view of stock criminal instructions advising the jury to use its common sense and experience in reaching its verdict. I Iowa Criminal Jury Instructions Nos. 100.6 (Direct/Circumstantial Evidence), 100.7 (Credibility of Witnesses) (1988) (stating in No. 100.6: “In considering the evidence, make deductions and reach conclusions according to reason and common sense.”) (stating in No. 100.7: “Decide the facts from the evidence. Consider the evidence using your observations, common sense and experience.”).
Bad-acts evidence as to mens rea (state of mind) and which is unconnected to the crime charged is always evidence of propensity because it
“requires the jury to draw an intermediate inference as to the accused’s disposition or tendency to form a particular mens rea. The charged offense occurred at one time and place while the uncharged crime ordinarily occurs at a different time and place. To bridge the temporal and spatial gap between the two incidents, the prosecutor must assume the accused’s propensity to entertain the same intent in similar situations. That assumption is the inescapable link between the charged and uncharged crimes. The. trier of fact can reason from the starting point of the uncharged crime to a conclusion about the mens rea of the charged crime only through an intermediate assumption about the accused’s character or propensity.”
Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 26 (citation omitted).
To eliminate or at least reduce the risk that the jury will' rely entirely on the defendant’s propensity, we require prosecutors to articulate a valid, noncharacter theory of liability before the admission of the bad-acts evidence. Id. at 28. Implicit in this requirement are two conditions: First, “the evidence must be relevant and material to a legitimate issue in the case other than a general propensity to commit wrongful acts, and (2) there must be clear proof the individual against whom the evidence is offered committed the bad act or crime.” Id. at 25.
Without detailing them, we expressly stated that there are some factual situations when the prosecutor can easily develop a valid, noncharacter theory of admissibility. Id. at 28. For example, when the defendant is charged with possession of marijuana and defends on the basis that he or she was unaware the substance in his or her possession was marijuana, evidence of prior acts establishing that the defendant was in possession of marijuana is admissible -regarding mens rea. See Edward J. Imwinkelried, The Use of Evidence of an *16Accused’s Uncharged Misconduct to Prove Mens Rea: The Doctrines Which Threaten to Engulf the Character Evidence Prohibition, 51 Ohio St. L.J. 575, 596-98 (1990) [hereinafter Imwinkelried].
To avoid the danger that similar bad-acts evidence presents, the mens rea issue must be in “bona fide dispute,” and the prosecutor must have a “bona fide need to resort to the potentially prejudicial uncharged misconduct evidence.” Id. at 598 (suggesting ways a defendant could affirmatively dispute mens rea, for exainple, asserting that at the time of the act, defendant had an innocent state of mind, or a defense witness may give testimony calling into question the existence of mens rea, or cross-examination by defense counsel- of a state’s witness who gives testimony on mens rea could put the existence of mens rea in dispute); see also I McCormick on Evidence § 190, at 671-72 (“[T]he connection between the evidence and the permissible purpose should be -clear, and the issue on which the other crimes evidence is said to bear should be the subject of a genuine controversy. For example, if the prosecution maintains that the other crime reveals defendant’s guilty state of mind, then his intent must be disputed. Thus, if the defendant does not deny that the acts were deliberate, the prosecution may not introduce the evidence merely to show that the acts were not accidental.” (footnotes omitted)). Otherwise the jury will more than likely concentrate on the defendant’s propensity.
Although all bad-acts evidence has some element of propensity, the jury is less likely to concentrate on propensity if there is a bona fide dispute on mens rea. When the State is allowed to offer bad-acts evidence on an element that is really not in dispute, the only relevancy of such evidence is to show the defendant’s criminal disposition or propensity to commit the very crime for which the defendant is on trial. Such a result “is a dangerous one threatening to emasculate the character evidence prohibition.” Imwinkelried, 51 Ohio St.L.J. at 579.
Acknowledging the danger that similar bad-acts evidence presents, one federal court has suggested what I believe is a sensible approach for trial courts to follow when such evidence is offered. See United States v. Colon, 880 F.2d 650 (2d Cir.1989). First, the trial court must decide whether the evidence is offered for a proper purpose. Id. at 656. That purpose must be something other than to prove the defendant’s bad character or criminal propensity. Id. Proper purposes are those listed in the second sentence of rule 5.404(6). Id. Second, if such evidence is offered for such a proper purpose, the court has to then determine whether the evidence is relevant to an issue in the case and whether the evidence satisfies the probative-prejudice balancing test in Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Id. Last, if requested, the court must give an appropriate limiting instruction to the jury. Id.
Strictly speaking, a not guilty plea puts the defendant’s state of mind in issue because the State has the burden to prove it. Id. Nevertheless, in some situations, the nature of the defendant’s defense may show that knowledge and intent, while technically at issue, are really not in dispute. Id. In those circumstances, the court in Colon mandated that a defendant can keep the other bad-acts evidence out by
“expressfing] a decision not to dispute that issue with sufficient clarity that the trial court will be justified (a) in sustaining objection to any subsequent cross-examination or jury argument that seeks to raise the issue and (b) in charging the jury that if they find all the other elements established beyond a reasonable doubt, they can resolve the issue against *17the defendant because it is not disputed.”
Id. at 657 (recognizing “distinction between defense theories that claim that the defendant did not do the charged act at all, and those that claim that the defendant did the act innocently or mistakenly” and concluding only the latter truly raise a disputed issue of intent) (citation omitted); see also I McCormick on Evidence § 190, at 671 n. 66 (“ ‘The mere theory that a plea of not guilty puts everything material in issue is not enough.... The prosecution cannot credit the accused with fancy defences in order to rebut them at the outset with some damning piece of prejudice.’” (citation omitted)). Thus, under the Colon approach, intent is not placed in issue by a defense that the defendant did not do the act charged at all. When a defendant unequivocally relies on such a defense, other similar bad-acts evidence is not admissible.
The Colon approach is a sensible one. It keeps the highly prejudicial, similar bad-acts evidence from the jury while at the same time alleviating the prosecutor from having to prove an element not in dispute. Imwinkelried, 51 Ohio St. at 599-601.
Some twenty-four years ago, this court eschewed the Colon approach in a case involving delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine) for profit. See State v. Gibb, 303 N.W.2d 673 (Iowa 1981). The State relies heavily on Gibb to uphold the district court’s ruling, and Gibb underlies the majority’s relevancy analysis. In Gibb, the defendant argued that because he did not contest knowledge but only contested whether he delivered the substance for a profit, evidence that he possessed a controlled substance on the day of his arrest for which he was not charged should not have been admitted. Id. at 682. This court rejected the argument, holding that the “[defendant’s concession of an issue does not preclude the State from presenting evidence to establish that element of the crime.” Id. I would disavow this holding for several reasons.
First, the opinion is devoid of any analysis. The opinion falls into that category of cases that completely ignores the first sentence of rule 5.404(6) by automatically including similar bad-acts evidence whenever the prosecutor offers such evidence to prove mens rea. Imwinkelried at 578. As one writer observed, “opinions in the hundreds of cases on this subject are less than satisfying,” and “[f]or the most part, they are composed simply of conclusory statements without any supporting analysis.” Abraham P. Ordover, Balancing the Presumptions of Guilt and Innocence: Rules kOk(b), 608(b), and 609(a), 38 Emory L.J. 135, 156 (1989) [hereinafter Ordover]; see also Ross v. State, 276 Md. 664, 350 A.2d 680, 684-85 (1976) (similarly criticizing federal cases for automatically admitting similar bad-acts evidence on intent without any analysis). Such an approach substantially undermines the character evidence prohibition and threatens to emasculate that prohibition. Imwinkelried at 578, 579; see also Ordover, 38 Emory L.J. at 152-53 (making the point that intent is an' element of virtually every crime and if the intent exception warranted admission of similar bad-acts evidence simply to prove the intent element of the offense on trial then the exception would swallow the rule). In addition, the Gibb approach would encourage courts to rationalize admitting routinely evidence of any similar bad-acts evidence as to mens rea as a matter of course without regard to whether the State really needed it. Imwinkelried, 51 Ohio St. at 580; see also State v. Bly, 215 Kan. 168, 523 P.2d 397, 404 (1974) (“We wish to emphasize in passing that if trial judges content themselves with merely determining whether the particular evidence of oth*18er crimes fits into one of the particular exceptions, they may lose sight of the underlying policy of protecting the accused against unfair and - sometimes unbridled prejudice.”), overruled on other grounds by State v. Mims, 220 Kan. 726, 556 P.2d 387, 391 (1976).
Second, the Gibb holding is inconsistent with our later recognition in Barrett, 401 N.W.2d at 187 and reaffirmed in Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 25, that before evidence of bad-acts evidence may be admitted such evidence must be relevant and material to a legitimate issue in the case other than propensity to commit wrongful acts. As one writer points out,
[wjhere intent is contested and is the central issue in the case, the basis for admitting the evidence is very high. However, where intent is merely a formal' issue derived from the elements of the offense, the argument for receiving the evidence falters. In addition, where evidence of other crimes ‘can become probative with respect to intent only after an inference of predisposition has been drawn, the argument for admission is at its weakest, for the distinction between intent and predisposition then becomes ephemeral.’
Some courts are scrupulous about keeping extrinsic crime evidence from the jury in these cases on a variety of grounds. First, the evidence ... is plainly irrelevant; second, it is unduly prejudicial, and third, the government does not need the evidence.
Ordover at 153 (footnotes omitted); see also Bly, 523 P.2d at 404 (elements of intent, knowledge, etc. must be substantially in issue béfore evidence of other crimes is admissible to prove such elements); State v. Sutherland, 92 Ohio App.3d 840, 637 N.E.2d 366, 371 (1994) (the defendant’s past behavior involving drugs had no relevancy to whether he knew that there was marijuana hidden under hood of vehicle in which he was riding); State v. Hall, 41 Wash.2d 446, 249 P.2d 769, 772 (1952) (knowledge was in issue when the defendant asserted that he lacked knowledge that the plants growing on his premises were marijuana). If similar bad-acts evidence is admitted on the issue of mens rea, whether or not contested by the defendant, that would have the effect of swallowing rule 5.404(b).
Third, by ignoring the first sentence of rule 5.404(b), Gibb is inconsistent with our recognition that the rule is an exclusionary rule rather than an inclusionary one. See Sullivan, 679 N.W.2d at 24; Barrett, 401 N.W.2d at 187. Under the exclusionary view, similar bad-acts evidence is presumptively inadmissible and its probative value is presumed to be outweighed by the prejudicial effect unless admissible to prove a legitimate issue in the case. See Drew v. United States, 331 F.2d 85, 89-90 (D.C.Cir. 1964). In contrast, under Gibb, such evidence is presumptively admissible if offered on one of the exceptions in rule 5.404(b). 303 N.W.2d at 682. The presumptively admissible view has the effect of allowing inherently prejudicial evidence to become routinely admissible without regard to whether the State really needs it. Allowing a prosecutor to argue that similar bad-acts evidence is relevant on mens rea says nothing about how such evidence is relevant — that is, by means of what inferences such evidence proves mens rea.
Fourth, the State generally does not need the similar bad-acts evidence to prove mens rea when, as here, other evidence is available to support an inference of mens rea. As the majority points out, there was abundant evidence found in the apartment that marijuana had been smoked there, indicating the owner of the bag of marijuana knew it was marijuana.
Last, I think Sullivan implicitly overruled Gibb. As mentioned, Gibb held that *19the defendant’s concession of an issue regarding mens rea did not preclude the State from offering evidence of cocaine found on the defendant’s person when the police arrested him for prior drug transactions for which he was charged. There was no specific criminal charge for the cocaine found on the defendant’s person.
In Sullivan, the defendant was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. At trial, the court admitted evidence of the defendant’s prior conviction for a similar offense on the issue of intent and knowledge. Although the defendant in Sullivan did not expressly concede the issue on intent and knowledge, the case was defended on the theory that the drugs on the premises were not his. Implicitly, therefore, knowledge and intent were not in dispute. Notwithstanding the holding in Gibb, we held in Sullivan that the prior conviction was not admissible on the mens rea elements because the State failed to articulate a valid, noncharacter theory of logical relevance to support an inference on these elements.
In this case and in Sullivan, the prosecution offered past convictions similar to the offense on trial. The issue in both cases was not whether there was the appropriate mens rea (intent to deliver and knowledge in Sullivan and knowledge that the substance was marijuana in this case). Rather, the issue in both cases was whether the defendant owned the drugs. Therefore, there was no legitimate issue to support admission of the prior conviction in Sullivan, just, as we shall see, there was no legitimate issue to support admission of such evidence in this case. For these reasons, I think Sullivan controls here.
In this case, the defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude her prior conviction for possession of marijuana, which was similar to the charge she was facing. In a pretrial hearing on the motion, the prosecutor announced that he was offering the challenged evidence to establish that the defendant had knowledge that the substance she possessed on the date of the alleged crime was marijuana. The defendant’s counsel responded by-saying:
I don’t believe anyone is saying Miss Henderson doesn’t know what marijuana is. She is saying the marijuana in her residence wasn’t hers.
The district court overruled the motion, stating the State had to prove that the defendant not only possessed marijuana but also that she knew it was marijuana. The court made its ruling without requiring the prosecutor to make clear how the prior conviction was relevant on the issue of knowledge.
The record does not reflect any attempt by the defense counsel to inject the issue of knowledge either by direct testimony or cross-examination. Rather, by his cross-examination, it was clear that counsel was attempting to show that the marijuana belonged to the guest rather than to the defendant. In short, the defendant’s defense was that she did not commit the act at all. In these circumstances, although the defendant’s not guilty plea technically put knowledge in issue, knowledge was not in dispute. For this reason, knowledge was not a legitimate issue. Because knowledge was not a legitimate issue, the only reason the State had for offering the defendant’s prior conviction was to show her propensity to commit the very crime for which she was on trial. Therefore proof of the conviction of a similar crime was not relevant on the issue of knowledge. Moreover, there was sufficient circumstantial evidence regarding knowledge to take the case to the jury, making it unnecessary for the State to use the defendant’s prior conviction of a similar crime.
On appeal, the defendant again contends that her defense was not that she does not *20know what marijuana is but rather that the marijuana simply was not hers. The issue then was: Whose marijuana was it? Not whether the defendant knew the item in question was marijuana. In this regard, I think the majority misconstrues the defendant’s contention on appeal when it says that her contention was that the prior marijuana conviction does not tend to demonstrate she knew what the drug was. Taken in context, what the defendant meant was that the prior conviction was not relevant on the issue of knowledge because knowledge was not disputed. As mentioned, her contention in the trial court and again on appeal is that the marijuana was not hers.
Because knowledge was not in dispute, the only reason the State had to offer the prior conviction was to show the defendant’s propensity to commit the very crime for which she was on trial: Therefore the State had no valid, noncharacter theory of logical relevance to support admission of the prior conviction. I would hold that this evidence simply was not legally relevant. •
WIGGINS, J., joins this special concurrence.