State v. Darling

Fatzer, J.,

dissenting: I must respectfully dissent from the court’s holding in paragraph 4 of the syllabus and the corresponding portion of the opinion. To approve the admission in evidence of the testimony of the witness referred to in the opinion as Miss X, is completely foreign to my notion of a fair trial. A defendant should *485not be required, in order to avoid conviction and punishment for the offense for which he is being tried, to refute for the second time his commission of a similar prior or subsequent offense of which he has been acquitted.

In my opinion, the admission of this evidence was prejudicial to the substantial rights of the defendant despite the court’s instruction to the jury as to how the evidence was to be received and considered by it. I would reverse the conviction.