State v. Ray, 63347.
Decision Date | 31 August 1982 |
Docket Number | No. 63347.,63347. |
Citation | 637 S.W.2d 708 |
Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. James Carlston RAY, Appellant. |
Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
J. Kevin Checkett, James R. Spradling, Carthage, for appellant.
John Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Theodore A. Bruce, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Appellant was convicted of one count of forcible rape and sentenced to a term of five years. Sec. 566.030, RSMo 1978. Several points are raised on the appeal therefrom, including the application and alleged unconstitutionality of § 491.015, RSMo 1978, commonly referred to as the "rape shield" statute. We reverse and remand.
At trial, appellant's defense was that he did not achieve penetration and that in any case the prosecutrix (hereinafter referred to as the complainant) had given consent. The complainant asserted that appellant and three others raped her in the early morning hours of July 19, 1980, and that one of the four (not appellant) had beaten her. At the trial, appellant sought to introduce evidence that on the night of July 18, 1980, the complainant had had sexual relations with one of the persons, other than appellant, who allegedly raped her on July 19, 1980. The court excluded the evidence. Several issues are raised on appeal, including the application and constitutionality of § 491.015, RSMo 1978. Because we decide that the evidence was admissible under the statute, we need not reach the other issues.1
Sec. 491.015, RSMo 1978, reads as follows:
We have ruled that the statute creates only a "presumption" that evidence of a victim's prior sexual conduct is irrelevant. State v. Brown, 636 S.W.2d 929, 933 (Mo. banc 1982). The statute enumerates four exceptions to the presumption, § 491.015.1(1)-(4); and, additionally, § 491.015.2 allows the trial court to admit evidence that it "finds ... relevant to a material fact or issue." Upon consideration of the whole record, we find that appellant's proffered evidence was probative of material issues, namely, complainant's ability to perceive and to recall the alleged events and whether she had consented to the sexual acts.
Whether evidence is relevant and whether its probative value outweighs its inflammatory and prejudicial dangers are for the trial court to decide, and its decision will not be disturbed unless its discretion is abused. State v. Wood, 596 S.W.2d 394, 402 (Mo. banc 1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 876, 101 S.Ct. 221, 66 L.Ed.2d 98 (1980). State v. Shaw, 636 S.W.2d 667, 671 (Mo. banc 1982). Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to prove a fact in issue or corroborates relevant evidence that bears on a principal issue. State v. Mercer, 618 S.W.2d 1, 9 (Mo. banc 1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 933, 102 S.Ct. 432, 70 L.Ed.2d 240 (1981). Although due process does not require all relevant evidence to be received nor prohibit the refusal of highly prejudicial albeit relevant evidence, relevance, not prejudice, is the touchstone of due process, and this proposition is...
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