Court Opinion

ID: 9558823
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:17:43.141577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:36.930440
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent for the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in People v. Ewoldt, ante, 380, at page 408 [27 Cal.Rptr.2d 646, 867 P.2d 757] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.). We should adhere to the rule established in People v. Tassell (1984) 36 Cal.3d 77 [201 Cal.Rptr. 567, 679 P.2d 1], and clarified by the Legislature in 1986. Evidence of uncharged crimes is admissible under Evidence Code section 1101 in a criminal prosecution to show a common scheme or plan only when such a plan is relevant to some ultimate issue in dispute—some issue other than the defendant’s propensity to commit such crimes.
Here, as the majority establish, intent was not at issue. Identity was not in dispute. The contention that defendant raped and robbed a woman in Michigan after the charged crimes here is asserted to be relevant to establish a common scheme or plan, which in turn is said to be relevant to prove that defendant did commit the charged crime in accordance with the plan.
The majority explain that because defendant allegedly had a plan to commit a certain type of crime in another state on a later occasion, it can be inferred that he actually committed a crime of that type on an earlier occasion: “Evidence that the defendant possessed a plan to commit the type of crime with which he or she is charged is relevant to prove the defendant employed that plan and committed the charged offense.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 424.)
*436The difficulty with this assertion is that the evidence is held relevant not to establish any plan, but to demonstrate the type of crime defendant allegedly preferred to commit. Plan evidence is relevant to show that defendant committed the charged crime only if both crimes are part of the same plan. Thus, for example, in a crime reported recently, a criminal offender sent five letter bombs to members of a family in New York, killing various family members. Evidence of the commission of one of the crimes would be probative to show the commission of a charged crime because they were all part of the same plan.
Here, however, the two crimes do not appear to be part of a grand plan—nor do they appear markedly similar, as the majority concede. The majority would permit the evidence to be used, instead, to show that defendant is the type of evil person who tends to commit a particular kind of crime, and therefore, he must have actually committed the charged crime. This appears to be nothing but criminal propensity evidence.
I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.