Court Opinion

ID: 9664115
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:03:11.372539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:02.178900
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(dissenting).
I concur with the holding of the majority that the evidence of Link’s participation in Black’s scheme to kill Martin was not clear and convincing as a matter of law and that its admission was error. I must respectfully dissent, however, from the further holding that the error was without prejudice to the result. Although there was substantial circumstantial evidence that Link was aware that Davis was to be murdered, it is logically possible that she was in fact a dupe. Evidence of the Martin murder plot, admissible under Billstrom only on a finding by the trial court that it was necessary to support the state’s burden of proof, could only serve to diminish any doubt in the minds of the jurors as to Link’s guilt and to suggest that she made it a habit to help Black kill other women. The effect of the error was, in my opinion, so prejudicial as to deny the defendant a fair trial. Difficult as such a decision would be under the tragic circumstances of this case, I would reverse and remand for a new trial without the erroneously admitted evidence.