State v. Hodges

Although the Court’s opinion in general correctly portrays the issues and the underlying facts, I am unable to subscribe to the view that contaminating a jury trial by exhibiting the accused’s silence is in the same category as error in admitting evidence. Inadmissible evidence was the problem which we considered in State v. LePage, 102 Idaho 387, 630 P.2d 674 (1981). Evidence may be inadmissible for any number of reasons, some of which are not based on constitutional grounds. In State v. LaMere, 103 Idaho 839, 655 P.2d 46 (1982), the Court there, too, failed to draw a distinction between…