Potter Stewart

“ The purpose of admitting prior-convictions evidence should be served and prejudice completely avoided by the simple expedient of a procedure which reflects the exclusive relevance of recidivist statutes to the issue of proper punishment. Only after a defendant has been found guilty does the question of whether he fits the recidivist category become relevant to the sentence, and any issue of fact as to his prior convictions should then be decided by the jury. ”

“ Recidivist statutes have never been thought to allow the State to show probability of guilt because of prior convictions. Their justification is only that a defendant's prior crimes should lead to enhanced punishment for any subsequent offenses. Recidivist statutes embody four traditional rationales for imposing penal sanctions. [3] A man's prior crimes are thought to aggravate his guilt for subsequent crimes, and thus greater than usual retribution is warranted. ”

“ Because of the possibility that the generality of the jury's verdict might mask a finding of guilt based on an accused's past crimes or unsavory reputation, state and federal courts have consistently refused to admit evidence of past crimes except in circumstances where it tends to prove something other than general criminal disposition. ”

“ Texas, the defendant offered to stipulate to the truth of that portion of the indictment which alleged that he had been previously convicted of a crime which put him within the scope of a recidivist statute. The prosecutor refused to accept this stipulation, and the Texas courts allowed proof of the prior conviction to be presented to the jury on the ground that, under the recidivist statute dealing with capital crimes, the jury has a choice between the death penalty and life imprisonment. ”

“ Because of the unclear state of the law in Texas as to the right to have such a stipulation accepted, the failure of a defendant to volunteer a stipulation cannot be interpreted as indicative of what would have happened if the State made stipulation a right. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved a stipulation procedure for felony cases in Pitcock v. State, 367 S.W.2d 864 (1963) , on the convincing ground that, because the recidivist statutes in felony cases provided for automatic sentencing, a stipulation resolved all issues for which the prior convictions were relevant. ”

“ Justice Frankfurter often reminded us, the history of individual liberty in largely coincident with the history of observance of procedural safeguards, Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, concurring opinion of Frankfurther, J., 341 U.S., at 164, 71 S.Ct. ”