Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/235

 502us1$$7H 08-21-96 15:22:22 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 62 (1991)

77

Opinion of O’Connor, J.

believe that a jury instruction clarifying the limited probative value of that evidence was required. Instead of an instruction limiting the use of evidence of Tori’s prior injuries, the trial judge gave an instruction limiting the use of evidence of McGuire’s prior bad acts. In so doing, the trial judge himself appears to have assumed that the prior injuries could be attributed to McGuire. The judge told the jury that “[e]vidence has been introduced for the purpose of showing that the Defendant committed acts similar to those constituting a crime other than that for which he is on trial.” App. 40. The State concedes that this category of evidence encompasses both the acts for which McGuire was positively identified as the actor (carrying the child by one arm and roughly pinching her cheeks) and the far more brutal acts for which no actor was identified (the fractured ribs and the rectal tearing). The grouping of these two distinct classes of evidence created a reasonable likelihood that the jury would believe that McGuire had been identified—at least in the eyes of the trial judge—as the prior abuser. The trial court’s error in implying that McGuire had been identified as the prior abuser was compounded by its further instruction that, if the jury found a “clear connection” between the prior offenses and the charged offense, “it may be logically concluded that if the Defendant committed other offenses, he also committed the crime charged in this case.” The Court finds it “likely” that the jury understood the instruction to mean that “if it found a ‘clear connection’ between the prior injuries and the instant injuries, and if it found that McGuire had committed the prior injuries, then it could use that fact in determining that McGuire committed the crime charged.” Ante, at 75. In my view, there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury did not understand this single sentence to establish a two-step process. The jury was instructed to “consider” the evidence that McGuire had “committed acts similar” to the crime charged