Court Opinion

ID: 9558802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:17:06.150087+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:36.198447
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J., Dissenting.
At the outset, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that Evidence Code section 1101 is still the law of this state.1I dissent, however, from the decision of the majority to overrule People v. Tassell (1984) 36 Cal.3d 77 [201 Cal.Rptr. 567, 679 P.2d 1] (Tassell). In Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, we undertook a closely reasoned review of the case law, and correctly resolved the question of the admissibility of common scheme or plan evidence under section 1101. I would respect this decision as a matter of stare decisis. I also consider that the Legislature has endorsed the court’s holding in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, with a minor clarification, and that because of legislative acquiescence, it is inappropriate for this court to reverse itself.
Section 1101 prohibits the introduction of evidence of uncharged crimes to show the defendant’s criminal disposition. (People v. Williams (1988) 44 Cal.3d 883, 904 [245 Cal.Rptr. 336, 751 P.2d 395]; People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 316 [165 Cal.Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883]; People v. *409Thomas (1978) 20 Cal.3d 457, 464 [143 Cal.Rptr. 215, 573 P.2d 433]; see also People v. Cramer (1967) 67 Cal.2d 126, 129 [60 Cal.Rptr. 230, 429 P.2d 582]; People v. Kelley (1967) 66 Cal.2d 232, 238 [57 Cal.Rptr. 363, 424 P.2d 947];. 1 Witkin, Cal. Evidence (3d ed. 1986) § 356, pp. 325-326.)
Section 1101 provides that “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character ... is inadmissible when offered to prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion." However, the section does not prohibit “the admission of evidence that a person committed a crime, civil wrong, or other act when relevant to prove some fact . . . other than his or her disposition to commit such an act." (§ 1101, italics added.) The section provides examples of facts that may be relevant for some reason other than disposition: “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake or accident. . . .” (Ibid.)
The examples that the statute recites of facts that may be relevant for some reason apart from criminal disposition are, with the exception of intent and identity, not normally ultimate facts at issue in a criminal trial. (People v. Thompson, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 315, fn. 13.) They are intermediate facts, admitted because they are relevant to an ultimate issue other than criminal propensity. (Id., at p. 315, fn. 14.) Thus one Court of Appeal observed that “[t]here is a distinction between facts in issue (facta probanda) and subordinate facts (facta probanda) which tend to prove facts in issue. In classic parlance, plan and scheme are facta probanda, not facts in issue. (J. Stone, Exclusion of Similar Fact Evidence: America, 51 Harv.L.Rev. 988, 1026n, cited in McCormick on Evidence, p. 328n.” (People v. Covert (1967) 249 Cal.App.2d 81, 84, fn. 1 [57 Cal.Rptr. 220].)
It hardly seems controversial to require, as we did explicitly in People v. Thompson, supra, 27.Cal.3d 303, that evidence of an uncharged crime must be relevant to some ultimate fact in issue, either directly or through the drawing of an inference. (Id., at p. 315, & fn. 14.) We explained: “Evidence of an uncharged offense is usually sought to be admitted as ‘evidence that, if found to be true, proves a fact from which an inference of another fact may be drawn.’ [Citation.] As with other types of circumstantial evidence, its admissibility depends upon three principal factors: (1) the materiality of the fact sought to be proved or disproved; (2) the tendency of the uncharged crime to prove or disprove the material fact; and (3) the existence of any rule or policy requiring the exclusion of relevant evidence.” (People v. Thompson, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 315, italics & fn. omitted; see also People v. Daniels (1991) 52 Cal.3d 815, 856 [277 Cal Rptr. 122, 802 P.2d 906]; People v. Gallego (1990) 52 Cal.3d 115, 171 [276 Cal.Rptr. 679, 802 P.2d *410169]; People v. Robbins (1988) 45 Cal.3d 867, 879 [248 Cal.Rptr. 172, 755 P.2d 355].)
We continued: “In order to satisfy the requirement of materiality, the fact sought to be proved may be either an ultimate fact in the proceeding or an intermediate fact ‘from which such ultimate fact [] may be presumed or inferred.’ [Citation.] Further, the ultimate fact to be proved must be ‘actually in dispute.’ ” (People v. Thompson, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 315, fns. omitted.)
Accordingly, even before our decision in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, we were concerned to limit evidence of uncharged crimes to situations in which such evidence was actually relevant to a fact in issue.
It was on the basis of this understanding that we reached the conclusion in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, that evidence of an uncharged crime showing a common scheme or plan was not admissible unless it was material in the sense that it was relevant to prove some disputed ultimate fact. We reviewed the case law interpreting section 1101, and arrived at the conclusion that in order to avoid permitting evidence of uncharged crimes to be admitted to show criminal disposition, the “plan” language of section 1101 must be interpreted to require that the evidence show essentially a conspiracy of which the charged offense formed a part, or that such evidence of a common plan must be relevant to prove some matter actually at issue, such as identity or intent. (36 Cal.3d at pp. 88-89.)
Although the majority would overrule Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, they endorse the view that evidence of common scheme or plan should not be admitted as an end in itself or to show criminal propensity. They conclude that a common scheme or plan is an intermediate fact from which can be drawn an inference on an ultimate fact in issue, that is, that defendant did commit the charged crime. (See maj. opn., ante, pp. 393-394 & fn. 2, and pp. 399, 403.) They err, however, in concluding that evidence of common plan in this case was relevant apart from its tendency to show the defendant committed the charged crime because he acted in conformity with his criminal disposition.
How does evidence of a common plan legitimately show that defendant committed the crime? As the majority assert, a common plan must demonstrate “ ‘not merely a similarity in the results, but such a concurrence of common features that the various acts are naturally to be explained as caused by a general plan of which they are the individual manifestations.’ ” (See *411maj. opn., ante, p. 402.) This definition seems to me consistent with that stated in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77; when the evidence shows an overarching plan or conspiracy, such that if it is established defendant committed the uncharged portion he probably committed the charged portion as well, evidence of the plan is relevant to show that defendant committed the charged crime.
In the foregoing situation, the evidence is like a jigsaw puzzle, in which the shape of the missing piece can be inferred from examining the pieces around it. I would agree that such evidence of common scheme or plan is admissible to show that the defendant committed the charged crime.
In addition, when the evidence of a common scheme or plan is simply that defendant has committed the same kind of crime at an earlier date, it may be admissible in the same way that modus operandi evidence is admissible on the issue of identity or intent. We said no differently in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, 88-89.
However, neither of these grounds for admission of the prior uncharged crimes was present here. Here, the evidence of uncharged crimes showed that defendant had molested his older stepdaughter some years before he committed the charged crimes of molesting his younger stepdaughter. There was no overarching plan of which the charged crimes were simply one manifestation, nor was there any issue of intent or identity.
When there is no issue of identity or intent, and the evidence does not reveal a grand design of which the charged and uncharged crimes are parts, in what way is evidence of a prior uncharged crime of the same nature as the charged crime probative on the ultimate issue of whether defendant committed the charged crime? I submit that it is probative only if we permit the jury to draw the inference from the earlier crime that it is defendant’s inclination or nature to commit such crimes, and that this aspect of his character caused him to commit the charged crimes. This is nothing but criminal propensity evidence, and should be excluded by section 1101. The majority, in concluding that such evidence is admissible, fail to carry out the basic purpose of section 1101, which is to prohibit the introduction of other crimes evidence to show criminal disposition.
*412Fundamentally, disapproving Tassell, a case that has guided courts for a decade, does violence to the principle of stare decisis.2 This kind of calculated damage to an elementary principle is disturbing. Retired Justice Lewis Powell recently wrote on the importance of stare decisis. The doctrine is, he emphasized, “essential to the rule of law.” (Powell, Stare Decisis and Judicial Restraint (1991) J.Sup.Ct.Hist., p. 15.)
Justice Powell reduced the merits of stare decisis to three simple specifics:
“(i) The first is one of special interest to judges: it makes our work easier .... It cannot be suggested seriously that every case brought to the Court should require reexamination on the merits of every relevant precedent.
“(ii) Stare decisis also enhances stability in the law. . . . [S]tare decisis is necessary to have a predictable set of rules on which citizens may rely in shaping their behavior.
“(iii) Perhaps the most important and familiar argument for stare decisis is one of public legitimacy. ... An important aspect of this is the respect that the Court shows for its own previous opinions.” (Powell, Stare Decisis and Judicial Restraint, supra, J.Sup.Ct.Hist., pp. 15-17.)
Rejection of stare decisis by a majority of this court has been much too frequent. See, e.g., People v. King (1993) 5 Cal.4th 59, 82-83 [19 Cal.Rptr.2d 233, 851 P.2d 27] (conc, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); Rider v. County of San Diego (1991) 1 Cal.4th 1, 33 [2 Cal.Rptr.2d 490, 820 P.2d 1000] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); People v. Gonzalez (1990) 51 Cal.3d 1179, 1264 [275 Cal.Rptr. 729, 800 P.2d 1159] (conc, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); Mitchell v. Superior Court (1989) 49 Cal.3d 1230, 1257 [265 Cal.Rptr. 144, 783 P.2d 731] (conc. opn. of Mosk, J.); Hernandez v. Municipal Court (1989) 49 Cal. 3d 713, 729 [263 Cal.Rptr. 513, 781 P.2d 547] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); Thing v. LaChusa (1989) 48 Cal.3d 644, 681 [257 Cal.Rptr. 865, 771 P.2d 814] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.). I will not belabor the point, except to add that the court’s failure to adhere to this doctrine, particularly in the criminal law, has put the law into flux and deprived our current pronouncements of the echo of finality.
Finally, we should not overlook the fact that the Legislature, in amending and reenacting section 1101 in 1986, specifically referred to Tassell, supra, *41336 Cal.3d 77, and expressed the intent to clarify it on the question of when intent is put in issue. The Legislature stated: “It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to clarify the holding in People v. Tassell, 36 Cal.3d 77, to the extent an inference can be drawn from that holding that evidence of another act is ipso facto inadmissible or irrelevant to the issue of a defendant’s reasonable and good faith belief that the victim consented, by rejecting that inference and making it clear that evidence can be relevant on that issue [of intent] in a particular case, depending upon the circumstances there present." (Stats. 1986, ch. 1432, § 2, p. 5130.)
As the defendant argues, if the Legislature meant to clarify Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, on one point, it follows that the Legislature accepted it on its other points. (See People v. Scott (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 550, 556 [239 Cal.Rptr. 588].) Under the doctrine of legislative acquiescence, then, our decision in Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, has been adopted by the Legislature and should not be overruled by this court. (See Fontana Unified School Dist. v. Burman (1988) 45 Cal.3d 208, 219 [246 Cal.Rptr. 733, 753 P.2d 689].)
I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

All statutory references are to the Evidence Code unless otherwise indicated.

Vainly attempting to rationalize their damage to stare decisis, the majority, in footnote 5 of their opinion, declare that a subsequent opinion—i.e., People v. Ruiz (1988) 44 Cal.3d 589 [244 Cal.Rptr. 200, 749 P.2d 854]—is in effect “at odds” with Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77. To the contrary, People v. Ruiz, supra, 44 Cal.3d 589, did not criticize Tassell, supra, 36 Cal.3d 77, and in fact cited that opinion with approval at page 605.