Brown v. State

I

Prior Bad-Acts Testimony Introduced For Substantive Evidence of Guilt

In conclusion on Issue I, justifying “bad acts” testimony to prove guilt, the court moves further in the direction of empirical substitution of adverse character for substantive fact evidence as the basis for conviction, a result with which I strongly disagree and from which I dissent.

The majority’s reliance on the “same transáction rule,” “complete story,” or “course of conduct” evidence admissibility principle of Crozier v. State, Wyo., 723 P.2d 42 (1986), is misplaced. In Crozier, we permitted a witness’ testimony that…