Legal Question in Criminal Law in New Hampshire

Re: Domestic violence case

Generally, in criminal cases, the Rules of Evidence limit the extent to which a defendant's "prior bad acts" may be admitted as evidence. The fear is that a defendant who is charged with domestic assault may be convicted, not because of the evidence concerning the particular assault, but rather because of his propensity to commit such assaults in general. Imagine that a person with a record for burglaries was charged with a burglary that he did NOT commit--you would agree in that case that there would be a real fear of conviction based on his prior record if it were admitted in evidence. There are several exceptions to this general rule--prior bad acts may be admitted to prove the defendant's motive, intent, opportunity, knowledge, plan, etc. In your case either the prosecutor or the judge determined that there were no applicable exceptions. Also, the prosecutor may have been fearful of creating an issue for appeal.