Court Opinion

ID: 9723297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:10:59.973832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:46.744923
License: Public Domain

ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). I believe the majority has erred in its application of sec. 904.04(2), Stats., to this fact situation; I respectfully dissent.
The general rule is that all facts having a logical probative value are admissible in evidence unless excluded by a specific rule. Sec. 904.04(2), Wis. Rules of Evidence, specifically excludes evidence of prior crimes or past conduct to substantiate general bad character and criminal propensity and to prove guilt. This prohibition is not based on relevancy. The evidence is relevant. Life has taught us (rightly or wrongly) that a bad person, a person of “criminal character,” is more apt to commit a crime than a good person; and at the same time we know that a person may do certain acts for a time and then may never do them again. The prohibition on character evidence is based on the danger of prejudice outweighing probative value. Wigmore states that character evidence is “objectionable, not because it has no appreciable probative value, but because it has too much. The natural and inevitable tendency of the tribunal— whether judge or jury — is to give excessive weight to the vicious record of crime thus exhibited, and either to allow it to bear too strongly on the present charge, or to take the proof of it as justifying a condemnation irrespective of guilt of the present charge.” Wigmore, Evidence, sec. 194, p. 646 (3d ed.). Our court has said the rule is “ ‘predicated on the fundamental principle of justice that the bad man no more than the good ought to be convicted of a crime not committed by him.’ ” Fischer v. State, 226 Wis. 390, 402, 276 N.W. 640 (1937).
The rule against admission of prior misdeeds as bearing on the issue of guilt is, as the majority notes, subject *662to exceptions set forth in sec. 904.04(2) of the Rules of Evidence. The difficulty with the majority opinion is that it so broadly construes the exceptions in cases in which indecent liberties with a minor child are charged that the exceptions now obliterate the general rule.
The exceptions listed in the statute are not mutually exclusive. The exceptions slide into each other; they are impossible to state with categorical precision and the same evidence may fall into more than one exception. The majority finds that the defendant’s prior deeds are relevant to motive and to plan or general scheme.' Motive is a difficult word to define but this court has said “Motive is the reason which leads the mind to desire that result.” Baker v. State, 120 Wis. 135, 145-146, 97 N.W. 566 (1903). An example of evidence which shows motive is as follows: Proof of husband-defendant’s adulterous relationship with his sister-in-law and his attempt to obtain divorce was admissible in trial of the husband for the murder of his wife to show his motive for the killing. Comm. v. Hellex, 269 Pa. 467, 87 A.2d 287 (1952). The adultery showed the reason why defendant desired the result of the crime charged.
The word “plan” means a design or scheme formed to accomplish some purpose. In Leonard v. United States, 324 F.2d 911 (9th Cir. 1963), the defendant obtained treasury checks payable to others, induced A to forge endorsements and induced B to obtain false credentials, cash the checks and split the proceeds with the defendant. Evidence of all acts was admissible to prove the existence of a larger scheme of which the crime charged was part.
The charge here was indecent liberties with a minor in August, 1974. The act was fondling the crotch and kissing. Evidence of prior conduct was introduced in the form of a prior conviction and testimony of past conduct related by a probation officer. The prior conviction was in 1969 for enticing a child for immoral purposes. *663The record does not give the facts of the 1969 offense. The probation officer testified the defendant told him (1) in 1973 the defendant masturbated in the presence of two young female hitchhikers, and (2) in August, 1974, the defendant made inappropriate obscene remarks to a girl. None of these misdeeds show motive; none show “the reason which leads the mind to desire that result.” Again we note motive is a difficult concept to grasp. Here one can say the defendant’s motive for committing the crime charged is to obtain sexual gratification with young girls. Therefore prior incidents prove this motive of sexual gratification. But in this case, defining motive in that manner is really defining propensity to commit a crime. Let us look at the crime of theft. The motive for committing theft is to obtain wealth without honest labor. Therefore prior incidents of theft prove the defendant’s motive of obtaining wealth dishonestly. Absent other factors we would not permit evidence of other thefts to prove motive for the theft charged. The motivating forces for a person’s conduct are not the equivalent of the legal concept of “motive,” which relates to the specific crime charged rather than to a generalized urge or goal.
Nor do these deeds go to show a plan. We have three separate acts, ranging in time over a period of five years. They are not part of a design formed to accomplish some purpose. They appear to be dissimilar types of sexual misconduct.
Evidence of these incidents was designed to prove defendant’s propensity and disposition toward sexual misconduct. This evidence could only have been designed to convince the jury that previous acts by the defendant are indicative of his guilt of the act charged in this case —to establish an inference that the accused is a dirty old man, and that he therefore probably committed the dirty act charged here. It seems to me the very purpose *664of the rule is to exclude evidence which is relevant only for showing a disposition to commit a crime.
The cases cited by the majority do not require the result reached here. In Whitty v. State, 34 Wis.2d 278, 291, 149 N.W.2d 557 (1967), the prior misdeed of the defendant was used to prove identity. The day before the perpetration of the crime charged, the defendant was shown to have used the same “lost white and black rabbit” trick to entice another youngster. This youngster was quite properly allowed to testify to this incident and to identify the defendant as the man. Identity may be shown by evidence of this type. However, to prove identity the other like crimes must be so nearly identical, so unusual and distinctive, as to be like the defendant’s signature. McCormick on Evidence, sec. 190, p. 449 (2d ed. 1972).
In Hendrickson v. State, 61 Wis.2d 275, 280, 212 N.W. 2d 481 (1973), also cited by the majority, incest was charged. Testimony of prior acts of intercourse between the complaining witness and the defendant, who was her father, and testimony as to acts of intercourse between two other daughters and the father were held admissible to show the defendant’s plan or common scheme and motive or intent. Hendrickson follows the approach that many courts have taken in allowing evidence of repeated illicit sexual relations with a particular complaining witness and of allowing sexual acts with other family members in the case of incest. However, I do not believe that the Hendrickson case opens the door to the introduction of all acts of sexual misconduct with any person whatsoever in all types of sex cases.
I concede that in sex cases courts have been more willing to admit evidence of other offenses. See cases collected in Anno. Admissibility, in Prosecution for Sexual Offense, of Evidence of Other Similar Offenses, 77 A.L.E.2d 841 (1961) and A.L.E.2d Later Case Service (1974).
*665However, this approach has been criticized by the following thought-provoking language:
“In sex cases courts have been more liberal in the admission of evidence of offenses other than that charged. Although in some types of sex offenses and under some circumstances there may be justification in this approach, there is a grave question whether the distinction as frequently applied is not the result of an emotional rather than a logical approach to the issue. As a matter of fact in some respects there should be no distinction between sex offenders and other offenders, while in other respects there should be a distinction between different types of sex offenders.
“In actuality, is one with a record of indecent exposure more likely to commit rape than one with a record of assault and battery so that evidence of previous conviction of the sex offenses should be admitted and evidence of the non-sex offense rejected? Are there more recidivists among sex offenders than among thieves or other offenders? Should evidence of previous conviction of prostitution be admitted against one charged with that offense, and evidence of previous conviction of pickpocketing not be admitted against one charged with that offense? These are only a few of the questions which must be answered in the affirmative before a court can say with logic that the general rule should not apply to sex offenses and therefore does not apply to sex offenses.
“Let us again refer to the reasons for the adoption of the general rule so that we may determine whether or not they are as applicable to sex offenders as to other offenders.
“The reasons set forth by both our Supreme Court and Wigmore are that to hold otherwise would (1) cause the defendant to meet a charge of which he had no notice and make it impossible for him to refute fabricated charges; (2) raise collateral issues and divert the attention of the jury from the crime being charged; (3) result in the proof of the prior offenses being taken by the jury as justifying a condemnation of the defendant irrespective of his guilt of the offense charged. It is self evident that these three reasons are as applicable to sex offenses as to other offenses. The fourth reason given by the Supreme Court and Wigmore for the rule is that because A did act x last year it is no indication that *666he did act x as now charged. Although the soundness of this last statement is almost universally accepted by the Courts of the United States and England let us assume there is room to debate its validity under certain circumstances. Let us then see whether the above statement would be invalid when applied to sex offenses. Whether the statement has validity in any case depends largely upon the likelihood that an offender will repeat an offense he previously committed. As pointed out in Footnote 2, supra [not quoted here], sex offenders are no more likely to repeat than other offenders.
“Thus since all the reasons for applying the rule are as applicable to sex offenders as to other offenders, there is no more reason to admit prior offenses to show depravity or propensity in a sex case than in any other case. Nor is there any reason to contort the exceptions to the general rule in order to permit the admission of evidence of a former offense, when in fact the only purpose is to show depravity or propensity.” Commonwealth v. Boulden, 179 Pa. Super. 328, 116 A.2d 867, 873, 874 (1955).
I share the concerns expressed by the Pennsylvania court. In my view there is no sufficient justification for excepting the evidence of past misdeeds involved here from the general proscription of the character evidence rule.1
*667And, even if one accepts the theory that the evidence can he pigeonholed into one of the exceptions in sec. 904.40(2), Stats., I believe that in this case it was reversible error to admit the evidence. Considering the time span and the dissimilar nature of the offenses, I conclude that the probative value of the evidence was far outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice.
Considering the record in this case, I view the admission of the evidence of prior misconduct as prejudicial error, and I would reverse and remand for a new trial.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice HEFFER-NAN joins in this dissent.

 “Yet courts have lost all feeling for tradition and the meaning of prejudice when applying rules of exclusion in prosecutions for sex offenses. . . . This liberality arises from a general (and somewhat spurious) notion that the mere fact of commission of a similar offense has more probative value in proving the commission of the offense charged in cases involving sexual crimes than it does in cases involving other crimes. Sex crimes are often motivated by an abnormal pattern of emotional maladjustments and personality difficulties, and medical authorities will in large part agree that certain sex offenders will follow a definite pattern of action when committing crime in any given instance. Yet it hardly seems rational to assert that disposition alone without more will furnish strong probative evidence that crime has been committed on the occasion in question.
“One need not display an imposing list of statistics to indicate that community feelings everywhere are strong against sex offenders. . . . When deciding the issue of guilt or innocence *667in sex eases, where prejudice has reached its loftiest peak, our courts have been most liberal in announcing and fostering a nebulous exception, offering scant attention to inherent possibilities of prejudice. Just when protection is most needed, the rules collapse.
“There is also a tendency among civilized people to label the sex offender as a repeater, and the current literature of psychiatry will frequently indicate that the sex criminal has a high rate of recidivism. This spurious thesis in turn supports the liberal trend in judicial rulings with regard to disposition and inclination. However, reliable statistics do not invariably support this contention. According to reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reflecting information on twenty-five different types of crime, it was noted that drug addicts had the largest proportion of previous convictions and stand first in recidivism in the list of twenty-five crimes. Larceny was second, vagrancy third, drunkenness fourth, and burglary fifth. Rape stood nineteenth in line, near the bottom of the list, and ‘other sex offenses’ tied for seventeenth place.” Slough & Knightly, Other Vices, Other Crimes, 41 Iowa L. Rev. 325, 333-334 (1956).