Court Opinion

ID: 9646131
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:49:53.766715+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:34.539401
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion on the matter of whether specific acts of prior conduct were admissible in this case. Specific acts are generally allowed for the purpose of showing the state of mind of the accused. In such cases it is necessary to prove knowledge on the part of the accused of the acts shown to be introduced. However, the question of who was the aggressor is more complex. It seems to me that any evidence which would tend to help the jury decide who was the probable aggressor should be allowed into evidence. This includes any specific act on the part of the attacker which may be relevant to the issue in question. We have stated in the case of Smith v. State, 273 Ark. 47, 616 S.W.2d 14 (1981): Evidence of a victim’s violent character, including evidence of specific acts, is admissible where a claim of justification is raised. Such evidence is relevant to the issue of who was the aggressor and whether or not the accused reasonably believed he was in danger of suffering unlawful deadly physical force (cites omitted). The broad rule could hardly be more clearly stated than through the above quotation. The majority relies to a great extent on the case of McClellan v. State, 264 Ark. 223, 570 S.W.2d 278 (1978). However, as I view McClellan, it did not preclude the ruling in Smith. In McClellan we stated: Thus the question is, when is a trait of character strictly in issue? The answer, in the language of Rule 405 (b), is when the trait is “an essential element of a charge, claim, or defense.” We further explain in McClellan that the trait of character sought to be proven must be an “operative fact” in order to allow such facts to be presented in evidence. Our conclusion in McClellan was stated as follows: “In the case at bar the question, then, is whether Sitz’s character as an aggressive person was ‘an essential element’ of McClellan’s defense of self-defense. Obviously it was not.” In the present case no one can deny that from the very beginning an “essential element” of the appellant’s defense was justification. It was obvious that he relied upon the general reputation that the decedents were of such a character as to render them almost certain to be the aggressors in the present case. Thus, I do not feel that McClellan v. State, supra, is contrary to this holding. However, if it should be, it is clearly overruled in Smith v. State, supra, since Smith was the latest pronouncement on the subject by this court.