Court Opinion

ID: 9861474
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:05:16.065862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:32.461935
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Justice.
I respectfully dissent.
The instruction on the inferences to be drawn from possession of recently stolen property should be condemned. It is nothing more nor less than a singling out of, and judicial comment on, a specific item of evidence. In essence this is the same type instruction condemned in State v. Bester, 167 N.W.2d 705 (Iowa 1969).
In State v. Gillespie, 163 N.W.2d 922, 927 (Iowa 1969), this court said:
“The requests referred to proper matters of argument. Defendant’s counsel argued to the jury no confession, admission of guilt or gun was produced and that a reasonable doubt could arise from such lack of evidence. But instructions to the jury should not argue the case for either side or call special attention to matters of evidence thought to be favorable to one party, at least without mention of related matters favorable to his adversary. There is almost no limit to instructions of this kind which might be given if the practice were approved. These precedents, although perhaps not directly in point, lend support to our holding in this division: State v. Dunne, supra, 234 Iowa 1185, 1194-1195, 15 N.W.2d 296, 301; Belle v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 256 Iowa 43, 50-51, 126 N.W.2d 311, 315; Boyer v. Iowa High School Athletic Assn., 260 Iowa 1061, 152 N.W.2d 293, 299, and citations in these opinions.
“The Belle opinion cites many decisions for this: ‘It is well settled that instructions should not unduly emphasize any phase or particular theory of the case.’ ”
If the above reasoning is valid as to defense requested instructions, it should be valid as to State requested instructions. The effect of proof of possession of recently stolen property should be a matter for jury argument not jury instruction.
RAWLINGS, J., joins in this dissent.