Court Opinion

ID: 9482947
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:05:53.505324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:18.603591
License: Public Domain

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
When Sanders claimed that he stabbed a fellow inmate in self defense, he placed at issue his intent which prompted or accompanied the stabbing. Because the government alleged that the stabbing was performed with assaultive intent, the issue was drawn. Although it is certainly true that Sanders’ admission that he stabbed the inmate is relevant, the admission does not eliminate the need for determining whether self-defense provided the motive, as he claims, or the stabbing was accompanied by assaultive intent, as the government claims.
While I have had enormous difficulty in sorting out, in a principled manner, when evidence is not relevant to intent but “proves only criminal disposition,” see United States v. Watford, 894 F.2d 665, 671 (4th Cir.1990), I have little difficulty in concluding that in this case intent was made an issue and that therefore evidence of a prior assault, which is probative of intent, is admissible under Rule 404(b). See United States v. Rhodes, 779 F.2d 1019, 1030-31 (4th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1182, 106 S.Ct. 2916, 91 L.Ed.2d 545 (1986); United States v. Bice-Bey, 701 F.2d 1086, 1089 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 126, 78 L.Ed.2d 123 (1983); United States v. Velazquez, 847 F.2d 140, 143 (4th Cir.1988). See also United States v. Weddell, 890 F.2d 106, 107-08 (8th Cir.1989). The admission of evidence is a matter of discretion committed to the trial court, and I cannot in the circumstances conclude that the district judge abused this discretion.
I would therefore affirm, and respectfully dissent.