When is prior-bad-acts evidence admissible?

On May 13, 7:22 am, s...@panix.com (Seth) wrote:
> In article <tmcb4394b0vro4i5m6rgqbtaa0fhmog...@4ax.com>,
> Daniel R. Reitman <dreit...@spiritone.com> wrote:
>
> >The probable argument in the Spector case is that because Spector's
> >defense is that Lana Clarkson committed suicide, Spector's prior bad
> >acts tend to show the contrary.
>
> I don't see how that works.
>
> _Her_ prior acts (did she attempt suicide before?) should be
> admissible.

They may well be, if they tend to prove the likelihood of suicide.

>  But unless there's a claim that he drove her to suicide,
> (and how illegal is that?) what would his prior acts have to do with
> her propensity to commit suicide?

They don't.  Rather, they have to do with the prosecution showing his alleged propensity and habit of commiting violence against women he is intimately familiar with.   The jury is being called upon to decide beyond a reasonable doubt that murder was the cause of death, and the defense suicide argument is intended to rebut that by raising an alternative cause of death, thereby casting doubt on the likelihood of murder.  The reason that prior-bad-act evidence refutes a (possible) defense argument that the death was a suicide is, it adds more weight to the prosecution side of the scale (possible murder), not that it detracts weight from the defense side of the scale (possible suicide).   You can tip the balance both ways, by adding to one side or subtracting from the other; but the prosecution is not allowed to bring up a criminal defendant's prior bad acts unless the defendant opens the door by raising a defense (e.g. "it was a suicide") that   makes such prior-act evidence do more than simply support an impermissible, unduly prejudicial inference that "if he did it before, he probably did it this time too".

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