Oregon Appellate Court, October 23, 2019

by: Rankin Johnson • October 24, 2019 • no comments

Summarized by Rankin Johnson, OCDLA

TRIAL PROCEDURE - MJOA and inconsistent state theories

Although a person cannot be convicted of both resisting arrest and interfering with a peace officer based on the same conduct, a person can be charged and tried for both offenses. Affirmed.

State v. Kountz 300 Or App 2118 (October 23, 2019) (Egan) (Multnomah County, Bushong)

EVIDENCE - Relevance and unfair prejudice

Defendant was entitled to offer evidence of a witness's racial bias. Reversed and remanded.

Defendant and his co-defendants were charged with shooting and killing the victim during a home-invasion robbery. Defendant testified that the shooting itself was accidental; the victim's fiancée testified otherwise. Defendant, who is black, sought to offer evidence that the victim and his fiancée, who were white, was biased against black people and as a result viewed defendant as more hostile and culpable than a white co-defendant.

The Court of Appeals held that the victim's racial bias tended to demonstrate the fianceé's racial bias, and thus was relevant, and also was not unfairly prejudicial. The court also held that proffered videos of accidental firearm discharge were relevant to the defendant's claim that he fired accidentally. Finally, the court upheld the exclusion of evidence that the victim had methamphetamine in his system.

State v. Naudain 300 Or App 222 (October 23, 2019) (Ortega) (Multnomah County, Ryan)

JURY INSTRUCTIONS - Boots instructions

When there was evidence of multiple assaultive acts on the same day, the trial court erred by denying defendant's request for a Boots instruction. Reversed and remanded.

State v. Theriault 300 Or App 243 (October 23, 2019) (Shorr) (Multnomah County, Hodson)