Craigg v. State (Majority, with Concurring)
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted Appellant of rape and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On appeal, Appellant argued that the trial judge erred by allowing the introduction of a prior offense into evidence under Ark. R. of Evid. 404(b). Appellant's principal point on appeal was that the pedophile exception was inapplicable to his prior conviction because the two offenses were factually dissimilar and temporally improximate and because there was no evidence he had an intimate relationship with either victim. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in finding that Appellant's prior conviction satisfied the pedophile exception to Rule 404(b), as (1) there were sufficient similarities between the two cases, (2) there was sufficient evidence of intimate relationships; and (3) because Appellant committed both offenses as an adult and assaulted each child victim in the same manner, the trial judge's decision to admit Appellant's relatively old conviction was reasonable.
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