Navajo Nation Medicine Man Association, Articles D

1997) (improper comments about defendant's criminal background did not require reversal because evidence independently supported conviction for burglary); United States v. Burke, 948 F.2d 23, 28 (1st Cir. The jury's verdict reflects a decision to credit Percy's testimony that this Court, as an appellate tribunal, would ordinarily not question. Moreover, the State emphasized the prior misconduct in its opening statement, during the case in chief, and again in its closing argument. Next, an evidentiary dispute arose over whether the court's pretrial ruling on, Thompson's motion in limine, allowing the State to introduce "evidence of the obtaining of the weapon," permitted the State to introduce the fact of Thompson's conviction for the Crandall murder. 1. 1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). Rather, the defense elicited from Percy that he had not been charged with any crime related to those events and that his charge for altering a vehicle identification number was dismissed in exchange for his cooperation in this case. Without explanation, the trial court ruled that the conviction was admissible. Our cases have long admonished that "one crime cannot be proved in order to establish another distinct crime even though they be of the same kind. Next, an evidentiary dispute arose over whether the court's pretrial ruling on Thompson's motion in limine, allowing the State to introduce evidence of the obtaining of the weapon, permitted the State to introduce the fact of Thompson's conviction for the Crandall murder. Percy's credibility was critical to the State's case. He appeals. In and of itself, no. In a hearing outside the presence of the jury, the State asserted that proof of the conviction was relevant to show identity and because Percy's credibility had been attacked. Lockhart v. State, 609 N.E.2d 1093, 1097 (Ind. In the next few weeks, Thompson used Percy's garage to grind the serial numbers off the weapons taken from Crandall's residence. doug percy jerry thompson. Illinois state police recovered a nine-millimeter handgun from the vehicle that ballistics tests later determined was the weapon used to kill Hillis and Beeler. In June 1991, defendant Jerry Thompson and Douglas Percy were driving through Illinois and were stopped for a traffic violation. 13. "See footnote 8 These witnesses actually added to Percy's account, rather than merely corroborating it, because Percy testified only that he assumed Thompson had shot Crandall in the head. There is enormous potential for prejudice in the guilt phase if the jury is permitted to know from the outset, in a murder case, that the defendant is a convicted killer. The Seventh Circuit held that the fact that the possessor had been killed was admissible to prove his lack of consent to the transfer of possession and, therefore, that the car had been stolen from him. I. On February 14th, 1991, Wesley Crandall, Junior, was murdered in his home in New Castle. Thompson and Percy each grabbed a large trash bag and drove back to Indianapolis. Stay up-to-date with how the law affects your life. Observing that Thompson had challenged Percy's credibility in opening arguments, the State maintained that some detail was needed to give the jury sufficient context in which to understand, and therefore credit, Percy's testimony about how Thompson acquired the gun used to kill Hillis and Beeler. Who does [the State] say was with Jerry Thompson on March 14th of 1991, at Hillis Auto Sales? Jerry Don Thompson (born November 21, 1942) is Regents Professor of History at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. The State's fallback position, advanced at oral argument in this Court, is that all evidence related to the Crandall murder was properly admitted because Percy's credibility was under attack. In March 1992, Percy approached Indianapolis police with . Family and friends must say goodbye to their beloved Jerry Thompson of Sweetwater, Tennessee, born in Athens, Tennessee, who passed away at the age of 66, on December 2, 2020. If the fact of conviction for a prior murder is presumptively prejudicial, the gruesome details of that offense may be even more damaging. As the Eighth Circuit put it in rejecting a Federal Evidence Rule 404(b) challenge: A jury is entitled to know the circumstances and background of a criminal charge. Contact us. Pointing to Percy's own testimony that he was not always truthful, the defense urged that Percy was a "liar" who implicated Thompson to avoid prosecution for altering a vehicle identification number and possible culpability for his role in the three killings. The well established rationale behind Evidence Rule 404(b) is that the jury is precluded from making the forbidden inference that the defendant had a criminal propensity and therefore engaged in the charged conduct. You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the . Jerry Thompson Profiles | Facebook 1993). On a prearranged signal, Percy gave the gun to Thompson, who knocked Crandall down and stated that he thought he had broken Crandall's neck.