Court Opinion

ID: 9575931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:18:42.210402+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:43.945287
License: Public Domain

*513Judge Greene
dissenting.
I cannot reconcile the majority’s conclusion that the trial court properly admitted evidence of a twenty-three-year-old rape as being “probative of the question of defendant’s intent” when the record clearly shows that the trial court admitted the evidence “solely for the purpose of showing that there existed in the mind of the defendant ... a plan, scheme, system, or design involving the crime charged in this case,” and admonished the jury to consider it only for this limited purpose.
Although it is undisputed that evidence of prior sexual offenses is liberally admitted in North Carolina, when the trial court expressly limits the admissibility of such evidence to a particular purpose, and instructs the jury accordingly, the reviewing court is not at liberty to analyze whether the evidence is admissible for any purpose. Cf. State v. Haskins, 104 N.C. App. 675, 683, 411 S.E.2d 376, 382-83 (1991), disc. rev. denied, 331 N.C. 287, 417 S.E.2d 256 (1992) (no prejudicial error when trial court admits prior act evidence for two purposes and reviewing court determines that evidence was properly admitted under only one of these purposes). In other words, if the record makes clear that the jury was instructed to consider the prior crime evidence for one purpose and for no other purpose, as in the instant case, the trial court’s admission of the evidence can be upheld only if the record supports admission of the evidence for that purpose. Thus, in my view, the sole question presented with regard to the evidence of the 1967 rape is whether this evidence is admissible for the purpose for which it was offered by the State and admitted by the trial court — that is, for showing in defendant’s mind a plan, scheme, system, or design (often referred to as “common plan or scheme”) involving the crime with which he is charged.
As the majority correctly notes, the remoteness of a prior crime is more significant when evidence of the prior crime is introduced to show that both it and the crime with which the defendant is charged arose out of a common scheme or plan. State v. Stager, 329 N.C. 278, 307, 406 S.E.2d 876, 893 (1991). This is so because
[t]he passage of time between the commission of the two acts slowly erodes the commonality between them. The probability of an ongoing plan or scheme then becomes tenuous. Admission of other crimes at that point allows the jury to convict defendant because of the kind of person he is, rather than because *514the evidence discloses, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he committed the offense charged.
State v. Jones, 322 N.C. 585, 590, 369 S.E.2d 822, 824 (1988). Thus, despite the fact that some similarities exist between the two crimes at issue, the twenty-three-year lapse of time between the acts virtually negates any probative value which otherwise could be attributed to evidence of the 1967 rape.1 Accordingly, the trial court erred in allowing the State to present, over defendant’s objection, this evidence and, in my opinion, the error entitles defendant to a new trial. See N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a) (1988).

. I am aware that as a result of the 1967 rape, defendant was incarcerated until 1977, at which time he was released on parole. However, even discounting defendant’s prison time, see State v. Davis, 101 N.C. App. 12, 20, 398 S.E.2d 645, 650 (1990), disc. rev. denied, 328 N.C. 574, 403 S.E.2d 516 (1991), approximately thirteen years elapsed from the time defendant was released until the commission of the crime with which he is charged. For the reasons previously discussed, this time lapse has eroded the probative value of the prior rape to a point where such value, if any, is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to the defendant.