Court Opinion

ID: 9772771
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:29:43.04436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:48.362908
License: Public Domain

Swepston, Justice
(concurring in result).
I concur in the reversal of this judgment, but my objection to the majority opinion is that the Court is now reneging on what was said and approved in the case of McBride v. State, 200 Tenn., 100, 290 S.W. 2d 648. I concede that it was dictum but it put the stamp of approval *558on the method of procedure adopted by Judge Kizer in that case, which assures an accused a fair trial, whereas the procedure now approved by the majority opinion practically assures that the accused will not get a fair trial. One does not have to be an expert psychologist to know that when an accused is being tried for a present offense of driving while intoxicated, the jury is most certainly going to find him guilty of the present offense, if evidence of prior offenses of driving while intoxicated is admitted into evidence. The introduction of prior offenses immediately changed the picture from that of an apparent first offender to that of a repeater or a recidivist. I am not so naive, and I do not believe that many people are, as not to know that this is true.
Legal sophistry cannot change the laws of human nature.
The fact that I am not alone in my views is attested by the fact that immediately following the quoted matter from 25 Am.Jur., p. 270, under Sec. 23, it is said:
“Prejudice, actual or possible, to the rights of the defendant has led some courts to adopt a procedure in accordance with the express provisions of the English statute, which requires that the defendant be first tried for the principal crime and then that the question of prior conviction be determined. Under this view, the information may be in two parts, the first charging the principal crime, and the second charging a prior conviction or convictions. After the jury return a verdict of guilty on the first part, the second part of the indictment may be read to them without reswearing them, and they may be charged to inquire on that issue. Another method, which is aimed principally at bringing *559full punishment upon a subsequent offender whose prior offense was not known at the time of his trial, is to have a separate information after trial of the principal offense. * * * (Other suggested methods.)”
Then, in 42 C.J.S. Indictments and Informations sec. 145 b (1), (a), p. 1057, it is said:
"* * * But that under statutes in an increasing number of states the question of prior conviction and identity of accused with the person previously convicted is submitted to the jury only after his conviction of the current offense, as in the case of proceedings on supplemental information filed after conviction, as discussed infra subdivision b(2) of this section * *
Then, turning to page 1067 referring to proceedings after conviction, it is said:
“* * * Where the indictment or information need not aver a previous conviction, the usual practice is to show such previous conviction in a proceeding supplementary to the original or main proceeding, which supplementary proceeding is brought after conviction and before sentence, and has been declared fairer to accused than to prejudice him in the eyes of the jury by showing his previous conviction in his original trial. * * *”
I concede the general rule that evidence admissible for any purpose is competent even though it may be prejudicial. We are dealing here, however, with a situation where the evidence of prior convictions is relevant only for the purpose of increasing the punishment if the party is guilty of the present offense for which he is being tried. This is particularly true where an accused does not take the stand, as in the fact in the Frost case, his character *560is not put in issue and there is no question of identity, or scheme or plan or other matter that would constitute an exception to the general rule of inadmissibility as described in Harris v. State, 189 Tenn. 635, 227 S.W. 2d 8.
It is my firm belief that if the driving- while intoxicated statute in this case, T.C.A. sec. 59-1035, and for that matter the habitual criminal statute, particularly Sec. 40-2804, are held to either authorize or require the procedure approved by the majority opinion, said statutes will eventually be held in violation of the accused’s constitutional right both state and federal to a fair trial, if a case shall reach the Supreme Court of the United States. But in any event, why make a mockery of the administration of justice by stating that the judge can take care of this in his charge to the jury when we all know actually that an accused under such circumstances is not getting a fair deal. It smacks too much to me of the former law west of the Pecos, where the general principle was “Give the rascal a fair trial and then hang him.”