State v. Richins
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The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals affirming Defendant's conviction of lewdness by a sex offender and vacated the conviction, holding that the court of appeals erred in upholding the district court's admission of other acts evidence.
During trial, the State sought to introduce evidence of four prior occasions when Defendant had been accused of exposing and/or stimulating himself in public. The district court admitted the evidence over Defendant's objection, concluding that the doctrine of chances permitted the State to introduce the evidence. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) if the doctrine of chances is remain part of this jurisprudence, it needs to be more carefully explained and more precisely employed; and (2) the doctrine of chances was not correctly applied to admit the evidence in this case.
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