Walden v. State (Ex parte Walden)

MURDOCK, Justice (dissenting).

I respectfully dissent, and I join Justice Bryan's dissent.

To be admissible under Rule 404(b), Ala. R. Evid., evidence of a prior bad act must go to one of the issues prescribed in the second sentence of that rule, i.e., "motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident." But that alone is not enough. The prescribed Rule 404(b) issue to which the prior-acts evidence is relevant must actually be "at issue" in the present case. As Justice Bryan notes in his dissent, the fact of the prior bad act must be…