Once Over Quickly

I'm heading out of town for a few days, but wanted to post links to two new opinions issued by the Court before I go.

The first, Schoger v. State, holds, among other things, that there is no right to plead guilty in Idaho. Ms. Schoger tried to plead guilty to an amended drug trafficking charge with a five year mandatory minimum. The Court found that her factual basis was sufficient and then refused to even consider allowing her to enter an Alford plea. At no time did the court ask the state to provide a factual basis. There obviously was one because she went to trial and was found guilty of the ten year mandatory minimum charge. She argued that she had a right to plead guilty to the amended charge and that the court abused its discretion in refusing to accept her attempted Alford plea. The Court disagreed.

Schoger v. State, http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/Schoger%20Opinion.pdf

There's better news in State v. Johnson, http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/State%20v.Johnson.Opinion.pdf. Mr. Johnson was charged two counts of L&L for allegedly molesting his daughter in 2004. During the trial the court allowed evidence showing that he had molested his little sister when he was a teenager. The Supreme Court held this was error and reversed the convictions.

It wrote that "at a minimum, there must be evidence of a common scheme or plan beyond the bare fact that sexual misconduct has occurred with children in the past. The events must be linked by common characteristics that go beyond merely showing a criminal propensity and instead must objectively tend to establish that the same person committed all the acts."

Congratulations to Elizabeth Allred of SAPD!