Court Opinion

ID: 9769028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:03:53.11617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:48.452090
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I believe that this Court is making the same mistake that the trial court made. This is, in effect, the appellant’s fourth criminal trial for the manufacture of marijuana, a crime for which he was never charged. Three times the federal government tried to convict the appellant for assaulting a federal officer. Three times a jury failed to convict him of the criminal charge, and this civil suit followed. Moreover, the rules for the civil trial seem not to have changed from the criminal trial because the defendant was forced a fourth time to defend what amounted to a prosecution for the production of marijuana. Indeed, the majority concedes that this case was tried “as though it was a marijuana case.” Three crops of marijuana from three different patches were paraded in front of the jury during the trial. The majority bases the right to introduce such inflammatory and prejudicial evidence upon the opening statement of appellant’s counsel in which he denied the appellant was involved in any manner with marijuana. Citing Pursley v. Price, 283 Ark. 33, 670 S.W.2d 448 (1984) (note my dissent), the majority concludes that the appellant opened the door to this line of questioning, and thus it was permissible for the appellee “to fight fire with fire” by introducing rebuttal evidence on this issue. I had previously thought that the trial court always instructed the jury that the arguments of counsel are not evidence to be considered by them. Common sense tells me, however, that it was impossible for the jury to reach a verdict without basing it upon the allegation that appellant was a marijuana grower. Moreover, the trial court allowed testimony concerning the market price for a full crop of marijuana to be admitted into evidence. There was no hard evidence that the appellant was responsible for the growing of the marijuana. The street value, as estimated by the officers, could do nothing but add prejudice to the appellant’s defense. The appellee, the federal officer, was allowed to prove that several cows were found shot to death near the appellant’s property three years earlier. So far as I am concerned, dead cows have no relevance whatsoever to the case being tried. There is no testimony that the appellant shot the cows. The carcasses of the cows would have inevitably led to the discovery of the marijuana. Such evidence was neither relevant nor probative of the issue in question. Perhaps the greatest mistake is the majority’s approval of the trial court’s requirement that the appellant introduce his income tax returns. These returns were apparently used for the purpose of showing that the appellant must have had income from growing marijuana. A person that’s smart enough to grow marijuana is not dumb enough to put it in his income tax forms. So far as I know we have never permitted individual income tax returns to be admitted as evidence in a civil case. Certainly it would have been proper to show what appellant’s net worth was by introduction of evidence of the amount of money reported on his income tax return. However, I am certain this Court will rue the day that they approved this procedure. I would reverse the case and remand for a fair trial on the merits of the complaint.