Opinion

State v. Brown

  • 318 So. 2d 24
Court
Supreme Court of Louisiana
Filed
Sep 5, 1975
Status
Published
On the bench
Tate
Cited by
8 cases
Authority
More cited than 60.5%

The opinion

318 So.2d 24 (1975)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,

v.

Hal BROWN, Jr., Appellant.

No. 56097.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

September 5, 1975.

Aubrey E. Pate, Kenner, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Woodrow

*25 W. Erwin, Dist. Atty., Julian J. Rodrigue, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.

TATE, Justice.

The defendant appeals from a conviction of indecent behavior with a juvenile, La.R.S. 14:81, and a sentence to two years in the parish prison, suspended.

The prosecutor concedes that we must reverse this conviction on the defendant's first assignment of error unless we are willing to overrule State v. Prieur, 277 So.2d 126 (La.1973). In the 1974 trial, over objection the State introduced evidence of another unrelated sex offense although it had not given the defendant advance notice of its intent to do so, in violation of Prieur . If admissible despite this failure, the purpose of the evidence was to show criminal intent to commit the crime charged, i.e., by showing a similar purpose to a similar act in the past, one of the limited purposes for which evidence of other crimes is admissible in aid of proof of guilt of the crime charged, La.R.S. 15:445, 446.

We are unwilling to overrule Prieur . It is our belief that the decision is a valid interpretation safeguarding the legislative intent of La.R.S. 15:445, 446, and the general principle of our criminal procedure that the accused should be convicted on evidence of the crime with which he is charged, not because of his possible bad reputation or of his possible guilt of conduct independent of the offense for which tried.

For the reasons assigned, the conviction is reversed and the case is remanded for a new trial in accordance with law.

Reversed and remanded for a new trial.

SANDERS, C.J., dissents. See dissent in State v. Prieur, La., 277 So.2d 134 .

SUMMERS and MARCUS, JJ., dissent.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.