State v. Green
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The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions for sexually assaulting six women, holding that the doctrine of chances precedent should be abandoned in favor of a plain-test reading of rules 402, 403 and 404(b) of the Utah Rules of Evidence.
On appeal, Defendant argued that under rules 404(b) and 403 and the doctrine of chances, the district court erred in allowing the admission of other acts evidence to show that he sexually assaulted a particular victim. The Supreme Court disagreed and affirmed, holding (1) in an analysis of whether the district court erred in admitting the other-acts evidence under the rules of evidence, without reference to the doctrine of chances, there was no error in the district court's other-acts evidence determination; (2) most of Defendant's hearsay claims were properly admitted consistent with exemptions to the hearsay rule, and any errors in admitting statements that should have been excluded as hearsay were harmless; and (3) Defendant's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel were unavailing.
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