Court Opinion

ID: 9699436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:24:09.743761+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:50.333601
License: Public Domain

Pashman, J.,
dissenting. While I agree with the majority’s view that the standard for admitting similar crimes *458evidence on behalf of a defendant must be less rigorous than the Evid. B. 55 standard for admitting such evidence against him, its disposition of the appeal does not go far enough to assure justice to this defendant. I dissent from both the tone of the majority opinion and from its application of the principles announced therein to the instant case. It is rare indeed to see the impact of a salutary holding undercut in the very case in which it is announced. What the Court gives with one hand it takes away with the other, as its instructions to the trial court plainly foreordain the result of the limited remand, rendering that proceeding a meaningless exercise.
I. The Effect of the Majority’s Formulation is to Bender Exculpatory Evidence Inadmissible
The Court holds that “. . . when the defendant is offering that kind of proof exculpatorily, . . . simple relevance to guilt or innocence should suffice as to the standard of admissibility ...” See ante at 452^53. Lest defendant rejoice prematurely, the majority hastens to add “. . . it is highly, appropriate for a trial judge, confronted with the opposing evidential considerations in such a situation as here presented, to weigh in the balance the concern of the law for orderly and efficient administration of the jury process.” See ante at 456-457. Pinally, the trial judge is instructed to "weigh” the likelihood that defendant’s proffered evidence is sufficiently relevant to overcome the risk that the trial would splinter into a series of "mini-trials” relating to uncharged offenses not properly before the jury.
In essence, the Court has determined that while evidence of similar offenses may be introduced by a defendant for exculpatory purposes, this opportunity depends upon the trial judge’s determining that it is worth the court’s time to hear it. Given today’s swollen criminal trial dockets, it will come as no surprise to anyone that such evidence will seldom see the light of day, nor the ears of a juror. *459Ostensibly, similar-crimes evidence is admissible to exculpate a defendant. Unfortunately, the Court has seen to it that this announced right is chimerical, having all the substance of a mirage. While the majority’s formulation is more intellectually appealing than the rigid test of similarity utilized by the Appellate Division, the difference is one of mere words and not of practical import.
If the majority is concerned about court time and judicial resources to the point of excluding concededly relevant evidence on that basis, it should formulate a more explicit standard which acknowledges this practical impact. Perhaps the trial judge should be called upon to make a preliminary determination as to whether defendant’s proofs are so highly relevant that they should be admitted without regard to Evid. B. 4 considerations. Thus, in a case such as this— where there are no serious doubts that all six offenses were committed by the same assailant — alibi evidence as to four of these offenses is singularly relevant. Evid. B. 4 should not even come into play, where as here, defendant’s opportunity to receive a fair trial is at stake. If the relevance is not strong enough to meet that standard, which should of course still be something less than the Evid. B. 55 requirement of similarity between incidents “. . . so unusual and distinctive as to be like a signature,” 148 N. J. Super. at 131, .a balancing test is in order. The judge should balance the probative value of defendant’s proffered proofs against the likelihood of substantial Evid. B. 4 complications, in order to determine whether the overall interests of justice would be best served by admitting the evidence.
Close decisions should be made with the knowledge that it is better to err on the side of admissibility, for nothing is so abhorrent as convicting an innocent person. Moreover, Evid. B. 4 itself recognizes this by allowing otherwise admissible evidence to be excluded only where . . its probative value is substantially outweighed” by the risk that ad*460mission will be unduly time-consuming or will tend to mislead or to confuse the jury.1
Of course, something more than the most remote possibility of relevance must be shown by defendant. For example, if the only common theme in all of these cases was that several women were molested by someone described as a white male in his thirties, exculpatory evidence that defendant could not have committed four of the six crimes because he was working would not be worthy of admission. However, the fact patterns of the assaults in the instant ease are much more similar.
The two-tier test, ante at 459-460, would better impress on trial judges that the exclusion of relevant exculpatory evidence is not to be lightly undertaken. Unlike the majority *461formulation, which belabors the fact that such evidence should be excluded when it will cause inconvenience, my formulation stresses that relevant evidence should be admitted unless the danger of great consumption of time or jury confusion is acute.2 Moreover, where the relevance is great, I would require admission of such evidence in spite of any Evid. R. 4 problems it might pose. The duty of our judicial system is to dispense justice. While delay and confusion are elements that may thwart this ideal, withholding relevant evidence from jurors will surely serve to defeat it.
II. The Trial Judge’s Failure to Admit Exculpatory Evidence in this Case was Plain Error
By remanding this case to the trial judge who initially found that exculpatory evidence involving four similar crimes was not even relevant, the majority clearly signals that no new trial should be granted to this defendant. Since he did not find even minimal relevance in this evidentiary offering, the trial judge is not likely to now decide that such an offering is so relevant that it should be admitted despite possible Evid. R. 4 problems. I find the offering in this case to be sufficiently relevant to deserve admission under either the majority’s standard or my own test. The inescapable conclusion is that a new trial is called for and the limited remand completely unnecessary.
This defendant was finessed out of a fair trial by an assistant prosecutor who was less than forthright in his representations to the court. Initially, the State was so eom*462pletely convinced that all. of the crimes were committed by the same individual that defendant was indicted for all six offenses. In the weeks preceding the trial the State adamantly opposed severance, and actually filed a brief to that effect. The rest of the scenario would be comical but for the lamentable fact that a man’s right to a fair trial was at stake.
Shortly before jury selection, the prosecutor asked the judge for a severance of all the grouped counts of the indictment, “in the interest of justice with respect to the defendant.” He eloquently pointed to the prejudice defendant would face if he were tried for a multitude of similar crimes. As we shall see, these were crocodile tears. Defense counsel was obviously taken by surprise — this position was a complete turnabout by the State. He opposed the motion for severance because the defendant had a strong alibi for four of the six incidents, namely, that he had been at work attire time of their occurrence. The defense counsel was clearly concerned that if all counts were not moved at trial, defendant’s opportunity to show that he was innocent of the related crimes would be curtailed. His foreboding proved to be well founded.
At first, the trial judge showed some appreciation of defendant’s dilemma, as he observed that “there did appear to be a common scheme and perhaps so common that it would strongly point to the fact that one person committed these offenses.” Severance was granted only as to the sixth offense which occurred some nine months after the fifth. The controlling consideration by the judge was that the sixth offense was too remote in time from the others to be heard with them.
Immediately thereafter, the prosecutor moved to dismiss all counts arising under the first four incidents, thus limiting the trial 'to the counts surrounding the fifth offense. He claimed that no witnesses were available for any of those incidents. By then, it should have been unmistakably clear *463that the real reason the prosecutor had asked for severance was because he could not prove any of the first four cases.
Uaturally, the defense counsel acquiesced in the dismissal of these counts. As Judge Antell’s dissent in the Appellate Division correctly points out, the prosecutor’s motive in seeking a severance must have been to preserve these charges as a club for use in gaining a plea bargain. Any doubt as to the truth of this view was removed with the prosecutor’s-next request. He moved that the court prevent defense counsel from asking any investigative questions concerning the first four incidents, since they were no longer before the court. Despite the fact that all parties were in agreement that the same person probably committed all of these crimes, the prosecutor wanted leave to present his strongest case while at the same time preventing the defense counsel from proving that none of the similar crimes was committed by defendant. So much for his concern that defendant not be unjustly prejudiced.
Despite this unfair conduct of the prosecutor, the trial judge refused to decide the issue in a hypothetical stance, preferring to await the concrete propounding of such a question by defense counsel at trial. The prosecutor then requested that a voir dire be held with respect to any proffered question. He then sought a ruling permitting him, under Evid. B. 55, to introduce evidence that defendant was identified as the assailant in the sixth incident by the victim. He also claimed that this evidence would help show a common scheme or plan on the part of the defendant. The prosecutor then highlighted the essential elements of the June 14, 1971 incident for which defendant was being tried. He represented to the court that the sixth incident of March 27, 1972 was substantially similar.3
*464Defense counsel objected to this stratagem by the prosecutor. He pointed out that the prosecutor had totally dropped his concern over undue prejudice to the defendant from grouping together the related offenses. He reminded the judge that the sixth case had been severed because its temporal remoteness was such that it was not sufficiently related to the other five offenses to be tried with them. Defense counsel asserted that it would be unfair to permit the prosecutor to effectively sever his four weakest eases and then to effectively rejoin the two strongest. He asked that the prosecutor stipulate the lack of identification in the four other cases. The prosecutor declined this offer, claiming that he had some witnesses in those cases who could identify defendant but that they were simply unable “mentally and emotionally” to come in and testify.
The judge ruled that a joint trial on two separate incidents involves different problems than does admitting evidence from a related, but severed, crime under Evid. R. 55 with an Evid,. R. 6 limiting instruction. Under that instruction the jury would he told that the identification of defendant by the victim in the severed crime, incident six, was to be used only to prove defendant’s identity by showing a common scheme in incidents five and six. The judge agreed to allow the introduction of the evidence pursuant to Evid. R. 55. However, at trial this evidence was never offered by the prosecutor.
If the sixth incident is so similar to the fifth that the exacting standards of Evid. R. 55 similarity are met, alibi evidence concerning incidents one through four is automatically admissible to exculpate defendant so long as those incidents are substantially as similar to incident five as is incident six. Otherwise, the Court is effectively holding that *465even where strict Evid. B. 55 standards of similarity are met, the judge can use Evid. B. 4 to prevent evidence from being introduced by a defendant. Yet, the very holding of the majority is that defendant’s showing of similarity of crimes need not reach the Evid. B. 55 level of similarity to be admissible. That is precisely the basis of the Court’s reversal of the Appellate Division.
My conclusion is that incidents one through four are as similar to incident five as is incident six. In fact, some of them are much more similar. Without going into undue detail, I note that all of the assaults took place in the evening between 9:45 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The first five were within a three-month period. The sixth was the only temporally remote incident, yet that very incident was found similar enough to the fifth for Evid. B. 55 purposes. All victims of the assailant’s sexual attacks were young girls between 12 and 16 years of age. In four of six eases, including the one for which defendant was tried, the victim was with a companion. Yet, the victim in incident six was alone. Incident two was the only one in which no molestation occurred. In every incident except the sixth, the assailant brandished a handgun. All of the incidents except the third took place within a square quarter mile of Cranford Junior High School, and in that case the attacker stalked his victim while she was within that area. In all six incidents, the attacker indicated that he did not wish to hurt anyone. While the exact details of every act of molestation are not the same, they are not significantly dissimilar. A feature common to all of the sex attacks was carnal touching, but an absence of vaginal penetration.
I can only conclude that if the sixth offense was concededly similar enough to the fifth to satisfy the trial judge’s perception of the showing required by Evid. B. 55, incidents one through four would all meet the lesser showing required for exculpatory admission. If he rules to the contrary on remand, I would certainly vote to reverse the trial judge. Hence, remand is a waste of time.
*466I agree with the characterization of the majority that Holt v. United States, 342 F. 2d 163 (5 Cir. 1965); State v. Bock, 229 Minn. 449, 39 N. W. 2d 887 (Sup. Ct. 1949); and Commonwealth v. Murphy, 282 Mass. 593, 185 N. E. 486 (Sup. Jud. Ct. 1933), all involved stronger showings of similarity of other offenses than was made at bar, which thus required that the exculpatory evidence offered be admitted. On the other hand, the similarities of the. other crimes in these cases were so great that in all three the State would have been able to admit similar crimes evidence under Evid. R. 55 had the evidence been inculpatory. We have held that a defendant does not need to make such a showing to admit exculpatory- evidence.
We are left with a defendant who may well be innocent, and yet not be permitted to present highly probative alibi evidence. The reason for this disadvantage was an erroneous ruling at trial. Closing our eyes to the specific facts of this case simply because the crimes were distasteful is unjust. It surely appears that the same person committed all of these crimes. It is clear that the'first four offenses are not less similar to the fifth than was the temporally remote sixth incident. The trial judge ruled that the last two incidents were more similar than is necessary for admission of evidence of other crimes by a defendant for exculpatory purposes. Thus, I can only conclude that simple justice requires that defendant receive a new trial where he will be permitted to show that he could not have committed the first four offenses. Such a showing might well convince the jury that whoever the common perpetrator of these six despicable offenses was, it may not have been the defendant.

The fear of undue consumption of time and of confusing the jury cannot support exclusion of highly probative evidence. In United States v. Robinson, 544 F. 2d 110 (2 Cir. 1976), defendant’s conviction for bank robbery was reversed. Three men were involved and the identity of the third was in issue. The appeals court held that
[ejvidence to the effect that the third man in the bank resembled an individual suspected of two armed robberies that occurred in the Bridgeport area within six days prior to the bank robbery was clearly probative of the issue Robinson sought to prove, namely, that the third man was someone else.
[544 F. 2d at 113]
The court found that testimony by a jailer that the criminal on the film taken by the bank’s surveillance camera was a person other than defendant should have been admitted. The facts did not support the trial court’s ruling, which was based on the rationale that repetitive opinion testimony by both the prosecution and defense as to defendant’s resemblance of the man in the film should be avoided.
In Jackson v. State, 551 S. W. 2d 351 (Tex. Cr. App. 1977), the court reversed defendant’s conviction of robbery by firearms. It found error in the exclusion of testimony of a person to the effect that he had previously identified defendant as having committed another crime which was later discovered to have been committed by the same party who confessed in open court to having committed the crime for which defendant was being tried. Since the confessor was serving five life terms, his veracity was subject to doubt, but the witness who had earlier made the mistaken identification could have added to his credibility.

As noted by the majority, see ante at 453, the lesser requirement of similarity for a defendant’s proffer of similar crimes evidence to exculpate is partly the product of the fact that defendant need not prove his innocence. All he must do is establish some degree of doubt, rising to reasonable doubt, concerning his guilt. Before excluding relevant exculpatory evidence on í'vid. R. 4 grounds, I would expect the trial judge to give defendant the benefit of all doubts on the question of admissibility.

The specifies of incident six are unclear, except that the victim was apparently alone and was taken down a cellar stairway and molested. As in incident five and most of the others, the assailant apologized when he was through. According to the prosecutor she *464was molested much like the victim in incident five. Considering his veracity in other matters, this might be a questionable fact for the trial court to have assumed. Nevertheless, I accept this representation since it was not refuted by the defendant.