Court Opinion

ID: 9767256
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:14:20.492011+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:29.838709
License: Public Domain

*394King, C.J.,
dissenting: The majority holds that the admission of evidence of other transactions in Maine, which constituted separate crimes there, was not erroneous because the transactions were evidence of a common scheme and were probative of the defendant’s mental state. While I agree that evidence of other transactions which constituted crimes in Maine was admissible to show the defendant’s mental state, State v. Garceau, 108 N.H. 209, 212, 231 A.2d 625, 628 (1967), it was inadmissible to show the character of the defendant. State v. Barker, 117 N.H. 543, 546, 374 A.2d 1179, 1180 (1977). Because it was admissible only for a limited purpose, the admission of the evidence should have been accompanied by specific instructions to the jury limiting its consideration to the narrow purpose for which it was admitted. Id., 374 A.2d at 1180; see People v. Castronova, 44 A.D.2d 765, 765, 354 N.Y.S.2d 250, 251-52 (1974). The court’s failure to so instruct the jury at the time of the admission of the evidence and its refusal to give a requested jury instruction on this issue were erroneous.
Additionally, I would remand this case for resentencing by a different judge. The judge’s order that the probation department not make a sentencing recommendation indicates that the court was unwilling to consider the recommendation. In order to insure that the probation department’s recommendation is given its proper consideration, the case should be remanded for resentencing by a different judge.
Resentencing by a different judge should be required because of the hostility displayed by the court throughout the sentencing process. The court questioned the propriety of the defendant’s submitting letters written by the Governor and two Executive Council members regarding the defendant’s character and service to the community. The court suggested that the defendant and his counsel were attempting to exert “the extensive political pressures of the Governor and Executive Council Members” on the court in disposing of the case. Reference letters are routinely submitted in criminal cases before sentencing. It is not improper for a defendant to solicit letters from politicians, public officials, clergy or anyone who could offer testimony of the defendant’s public service.
The court also displayed some hostility to the defendant and his counsel when it refused to continue sentencing to permit a psychologist to testify on behalf of the defendant prior to sentencing. While this incident alone would not require resentencing by a different judge, when considered in the framework of the two incidents discussed above, such a procedure is necessary.