Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Prior bad acts and faulty limiting instruction

Ryan Eddigner won in State v. Carpenter, No. 100,485 (Kan. App. March 12, 2010)(unpublished), obtaining a new trial in a Greenwood County manufacture prosecution. The COA held that, under Boggs (blogged about here), the district court improperly admitted evidence of prior drug convictions as it related to a possession charge. The COA also noted that the limiting instruction given was not directed solely toward the possession charge, but allowed use of the prior convictions as evidence of intent in general. The COA held that this was erroneous and that the error could have reasonably misled the jury on the nonpossession charges. As a result, the COA remanded all charges for a new trial.

[Update: the state did not file a PR and the mandate issued on April 15, 2010.]

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