Commonwealth v. Boczkowski3/23/2004
Appellant further notes that the Commonwealth should not be permitted to "'credit the accused with fancy defenses in order to rebut them'" with prejudicial evidence. Appellant's Brief, 36 (quoting McCormick on Evidence (2d ed.), § 190 n.54). The Commonwealth responds by noting that, in order to convict appellant of first degree murder, it is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, among other things, that appellant killed Maryann and that he acted with specific intent. There were no eyewitnesses (other than appellant himself) and, although appellant made some incriminating statements and head movements that were interpreted as incriminatory, he did not give a detailed confession.
Thus, the case against appellant was largely circumstantial: i.e., consisting of proof that death was brought on by blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, not drowning; the fact that appellant was the only person with access, etc. The Commonwealth argues that proof of the circumstances surrounding the death of appellant's first wife was highly probative in that it too tended to show that Maryann died at someone's hands, and not by some other means, and that those hands belonged to appellant. In addition to ruling out accident as the cause of death, the Commonwealth argues, the evidence was also probative of appellant's intent. The Commonwealth also notes that the prospect of prejudice arising from the evidence was ameliorated by the trial court's repeated and explicit instructions to the jury as to the limited purpose of the evidence.
Evidence is admissible if it is relevant -- that is, if it tends to establish a material fact, makes a fact at issue more or less probable, or supports a reasonable inference supporting a material fact, Tharp, 830 A.2d at 530 (citing Commonwealth v. Stallworth, 781 A.2d 110, 117 (Pa. 2001)) -- and its probative value outweighs the likelihood of unfair prejudice. As noted above, evidence of prior bad acts, while generally not admissible to prove bad character or criminal propensity, is admissible when proffered for some other relevant purpose so long as the probative value outweighs the prejudicial effect. Richter; see also Commonwealth v. Spotz, 756 A.2d 1139, 1152 (Pa. 2000), cert. denied, 121 S.Ct. 1381 (2001). This Court has recognized many relevant purposes, other than criminal propensity, for which evidence of other crimes may be introduced, including to show the absence of accident. E.g., Spotz.
The parties have cited to no cases, and our research has revealed none, which speak directly to whether evidence of an absence of accident must or should be presented only as responsive evidence to a specifically-forwarded defense of accident. At least for purposes of a homicide prosecution, where the victim, of course, is unavailable, we reject the notion that proof of an absence of accident is admissible only for responsive purposes. Although death itself occurs in innumerable ways, there are but a limited number of manners of death: suicide, natural causes, accident, homicide or, in rare instances, indeterminable. In a murder prosecution, the Commonwealth bears the affirmative burden of convincing the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the death was only by homicide; and, in a first-degree murder case, it bears the additional burden of proving that the defendant acted with premeditation and/or deliberation. The defendant, of course, is not obliged to present any evidence at all. In a case such as this, where there are no Commonwealth eyewitnesses, one appropriate way in which to prove that the death was by criminal means is to exclude the possibility of other manners of death. This is not the rebuttal of a prospective "fancy defense" contemplated in appellant's quote from
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