Criminal Law: Jury Instructions-Propensity Evidence

Staff Report//March 11, 2020//

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Where a defendant challenged his convictions for statutory sodomy and victim tampering, the trial court did not plainly err in instructing the jury on the first-degree statutory sodomy counts, and there was no violation of the defendant’s right to an unanimous verdict, and the judgment is affirmed because even though the court plainly erred in allowing propensity evidence in the form of graphic and emotional descriptions of prior and uncharged rapes, the defendant was not entitled to relief because he failed to demonstrate that he suffered a manifest injustice or a miscarriage of justice because the other evidence at trial overwhelming established his guilt.

Judgment is affirmed.

State v. Brown (MLW No. 74635/Case No. WD81873 – 31 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Hardwick, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Johnson County, Collins, J. (Carol D. Jansen, Columbia, for appellant) (Evan J. Buchheim, Jefferson City, for respondent).

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