Prior bad acts should be admissible
Allow Admission of Prior Bad Acts
The judge in the Phil Spector case, Larry P. Fidler, has allowed admission of testimony by four women whose stories appear similar to that which Lana Clarkson might have told had she lived. However, he rejected prosecutors' requests to introduce six other incidents into evidence. Two misdemeanor gun charges from the 1970s were considered too old; others, including one in which Spector allegedly pushed the barrel of a gun into a woman's cheek were ruled too dissimilar to be "relevant." The law generally proscribes the introduction of evidence of prior bad acts.
It should not.
Prior bad acts can show that a defendant has a propensity to commit crime. This is particularly true if the person was ...
