Court Opinion

ID: 9729042
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:25:07.420176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:54.977247
License: Public Domain

Jim Hannah, Chief Justice, concurring. I concur based on the doctrine of stare decisis. I again note my deep concern that by abandoning Ark. R. Evid. 404, and by eroding the common-law prohibition against the admission of character evidence, we are ignoring the presumption of innocence and the fundamental right to a fair trial. However, I have already made myself clear that, if we have not already arrived, we are casting aside proof beyond a reasonable doubt by allowing a criminal defendant to be convicted of a crime using evidence of a prior conviction.1 The evidence of intent in the present case was Cluck’s prior conviction for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.   See Saul v. State, 365 Ark. 77, 225 S.W.3d 373 (2006) (Hannah, C.J., concurring); Swift v. State, 363 Ark. 496, 215 S.W.3d 619 (2005) (Hannah, C.J., concurring); Davidson v. State, 363 Ark. 86, 210 S.W.3d 887 (2005) (Hannah, C.J., concurring); Davis v. State, 362 Ark. 34, 207 S.W.3d 474 (2005) (Hannah, C.J., dissenting); Fells v. State, 362 Ark. 77, 207 S.W.3d 498 (2005) (Hannah, C.J., dissenting); McCoy v. State, 354 Ark. 322, 123 S.W.3d 901 (2003) (Hannah, J., concurring).