Senate approves admissibility of prior bad acts in sex offense cases

OLYMPIA — This morning the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would allow evidence of a prior bad act by a defendant on trial for a sex offense to be admissible.

There is currently a presumption against admitting evidence of prior similar offenses in sex offence trials, but Senate Bill 6933 would create an exception where such evidence would prove that a defendant has a history of committing the sex offence for which they are being charged.

“I understand that we need some restriction on introducing prior bad acts that might persuade a jury to base a verdict on past actions rather than the facts of the case,” said Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, who sponsored the bill. “But I’ve worked on this problem with law enforcement and legal experts, and I think there are ways to allow prior bad acts to be considered without hamstringing prosecutors.”

The bill does not eliminate the requirement for a trial judge to weigh the probative value of the prior sex offense evidence against the danger of unfair prejudice to the defendant, but it does allow evidence of prior bad acts to be admitted to show that the defendant has propensity to commit the sex offenses charged.

The legislation passed on a vote of 49-0, and will now be sent to the House for consideration.

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