Court Opinion

ID: 9557782
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:57:28.182714+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:50.029223
License: Public Domain

HERNANDEZ, Judge (specially concurring). I concur with Judge Wood; however, I believe that some additional comments are called for concerning Evidence Rule 404(b), the last sentence of which reads as follows: “It [evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts] may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.” In my opinion, this sentence does not apply to witnesses other than the accused and the victim in criminal cases and to the plaintiff and defendant in civil cases. It is readily apparent that this portion of the rule will have far greater application in criminal cases than in civil cases. Had the draftsman intended this sentence to apply to all witnesses, they probably would not have included “motive” and “intent”. The motive or intent of a witness, other than one of the four just mentioned, introduced for any purpose other than impeachment, is usually irrelevant. If, for some reason, the crimes, wrongs, or acts, of a witness, other than the four mentioned above were relevant to show motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident, such evidence would be admissible under Evidence Rule 402 (“All relevant evidence is admissible . . ..”), and the last sentence of Rule 401(b) would be redundant in this regard. Evidence Rule 401: “ ‘Relevant evidence’ means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Evidence Rules 607, 608, 609, and 610, in a very detailed and orderly manner, govern the admission of evidence for the impeachment of witnesses. So that it would be illogical to have 401(b), almost as an aside, apply as well to the introduction of such evidence. “Impeachment” here means the methods or techniques for questioning the credibility of a witness.