Court Opinion

ID: 9703897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:12:00.800999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:52.862726
License: Public Domain

MACK, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
In this case, I cannot agree with the majority that the misjoinder of separate offenses for trial, in violation of Super.Ct. Crim.R. 8(b), (and the denial of a motion to sever by the trial court) nevertheless constituted harmless error. Although misjoin-der is not reversible error per se, a presumptive possibility of prejudice to the defendant results from improper joinder under Rule 8(b). Morris v. United States, 548 A.2d 1383 (D.C.1988).
The majority not only ignores this “presumptive possibility” but makes short shrift of a complex task. Conceding that the evidence of guilt in this case is not overwhelming, and finding it unnecessary to consider the effectiveness of the trial court’s instructions to the jury, the majority focuses solely on a mutual admissibility theory {see Settles v. United States, 522 A.2d 348, 354 (D.C.1987) (citing Ray v. United States, 472 A.2d 854, 859 (D.C.1984) (“a misjoinder may be deemed harmless only ‘if all or substantially all of the evidence of one offense would be admissible in a separate trial of the other’ ”)). The evidence as to one crime, says the majority, would be admissible in a trial for the other crime to prove identity. Thus, the majority slides into a thicket of misconceptions with respect to other crimes evidence. See Drew v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 11, 331 F.2d 85 (1964); see also Thompson v. United States, 546 A.2d 414 (D.C.1988); Bartley v. United States, 530 A.2d 692, 701 (D.C.1987) (Mack, J., dissenting).
*102In the typical Drew analysis, the instant case does not present a situation in which the evidence of one crime would have been admissible in a separate trial of the other to prove identity. It would not have been enough to have simply alleged that identity was an issue. There must have been clear and convincing evidence that the defendant was the perpetrator or co-perpetrator of the uncharged crime. See Light v. United States, 360 A.2d 479, 480 (D.C.1976); United States v. Bussey, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 268, 273, 432 F.2d 1330, 1335 (1970). There must have been an articulated independent theory of logical relevance — how or by what means the uncharged crime would have proved identity. See Ali v. United States, 520 A.2d 306, 310 n. 4 (D.C.1987); Drew, supra, 118 U.S.App.D.C. at 16, 331 F.2d at 90. The proof of modus operandi must have been of such nature as to make it highly likely that the same person committed both crimes. A modus operandi which was not unique would not have been sufficient. Easton v. United States, 533 A.2d 904, 907 (D.C.1987); Warren v. United States, 436 A.2d 821, 832 (D.C.1981). Finally there would have had to have been a careful and informed exercise of discretion by the trial court finding that the probative effect of the evidence would have outweighed the prejudice to the accused. See Graves v. United States, 515 A.2d 1136, 1139 (D.C.1986).
Applying these relevant factors here, I do not see how this court can conclude that the evidence of one crime would have been mutually admissible at the trial of the other and that therefore the misjoinder was harmless error. The majority may be right in concluding that there was a need to corroborate the circumstantial evidence as to identity, which it concedes is not overwhelming, but that is simply another reason for finding that the misjoinder could not have been harmless. A theory of logical relevance supporting admissibility is lacking; the majority chooses not to speak in terms of modus operandi but alludes to the “points of similarity surrounding the two crimes to create a reasonable probability that the same person[s] committed each.” We are not told why the points of similarity or combination of circumstances are unique. There is nothing unique about violent crimes occurring within ninety minutes of each other in an urban setting. There is nothing unique about a .32 caliber pistol or a blue automobile with spoke-rim wheels (which the majority concedes was described with varying degrees of particularity). If there are similarities, they are superficial and unremarkable.
The truth of the matter is that the majority, in holding that there was a misjoinder of offenses under Rule 8(b), has placed itself on the horns of a dilemma. In its effort to find this misjoinder harmless, it has embraced a mutually admissible evi-dentiary theory which highlights the fact that the misjoinder could not have been harmless, i.e. that the challenged evidence had a “substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 776, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1253, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946); see United States v. Lane, 474 U.S. 438, 449, 106 S.Ct. 725, 732, 88 L.Ed.2d 814 (1986).
In its most basic sense, the determination of whether an error in the admissibility of evidence is nevertheless harmless is not an easy one. It is made more difficult when the challenged evidence is other crimes evidence which Drew mandates for exclusion or permits as an exception. When the asserted exception is one of identity, and when there is nothing of record to tie the defendant to the other crime sought to be introduced, the risk to the defendant in the reception of such evidence is monumental. The task of sorting out the degrees of similarity between the commission of a charged crime and the other crime may be a tedious one. See Easton v. United States, supra, 533 A.2d at 908. If the modus operandi of the two crimes is not so unique as to make it likely that the same person committed both crimes, the prejudice to the accused is apparent, particularly if the challenged evidence constitutes a substantial part of (or is critical to, as here) the government’s case. Id. at 909. Given all these difficulties in weighing probative value and prejudicial effect, for the pur*103pose of assessing harmless error, still another dimension is present when the fact of improper joinder is added to the Drew calculus. This court has noted that there has been some disagreement among courts on whether a misjoinder under Rule 8(b) could ever amount to harmless error. Settles v. United States, supra, 522 A.2d at 348. The circumstances of the instant case illustrate the magnitude of this problem.
Thus, there is a certain incongruity in pronouncing, as has the majority here, that misjoinder was error because there was no evidentiary need for joinder, and at the same time proclaiming that, given the need for identification evidence, mutual admissibility would have provided a real contribution to the process of proof. Perhaps that is why this court, while recognizing the applicability of the harmless error analysis to misjoinder, has been reluctant to find harmless error as to Rule 8(b) violations.1 See Morris v. United States, supra; Easton v. United States, supra; Settles v. United States, supra; Ray v. United States, supra; Tinsley v. United States, 368 A.2d 531 (D.C.1976); Davis v. United States, 367 A.2d 1254 (D.C.1976). Cf. Wright v. United States, 510 A.2d 223 (D.C.1986), where the evidence of the defendants’ involvement in the distribution of heroin was “compelling” and where a protective instruction was given.

. The cases cited by the majority as supporting its mutual admissibility theory are inapposite for that purpose. None of them involve Rule 8(b) misjoinder. All of them involve distinctive facts relating to the manner in which the various crimes were committed.