Bighames v. State

Ralph Edward Bighames, the appellant, was indicted and convicted for rape in the first degree. Sentence was life imprisonment. Three issues are raised on appeal.

I

Bighames argues that the trial judge erred in allowing evidence of prior rape. Under the identity exception to the general exclusionary rule prohibiting the admission of other or collateral crimes as substantive evidence of the guilt of the accused, the prior crime is not relevant to prove identity unless both that and the now-charged crime are "signature crimes" having the accused's mark and the peculiarly distinctive modus operandi…