Opinion
SC 544.
November 8, 1973.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Morgan County, Newton B. Powell, J.
Travis W. Hardwick, Decatur, for petitioner.
In the prosecution of an accused for the commission of one sexual offense, evidence of a separate and distinct sex crime committed against a person other than the prosecutrix in the indictment, is not relevant and is prejudicial and inadmissible evidence. Brasher v. State, 249 Ala. 96, 30 So.2d 31; Durham v. State, 287 Ala. 731, 250 So.2d 696; Noble v. State, 253 Ala. 519, 45 So.2d 859; Mason v. State, 259 Ala. 438, 66 So.2d 557; Hinton v. State, 280 Ala. 48, 189 So.2d 849.
No brief for the State.
Writ denied. By denying the writ, we point out that writs of certiorari are frequently denied without any consideration of the merits. Haden v. Olan Mills, Inc., 273 Ala. 129, 135 So.2d 388 (1961). A denial of certiorari should never be considered as an expression by the reviewing court on the merits of the controversy. See Hamilton Brown Shoe Co. v. Wolf Brothers, 240 U.S. 251, 36 S.Ct. 269, 60 L.Ed. 629 (1916). Our denial of the writ should not be understood as approving or disapproving the language used, or the statements of law contained in the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals, 51 Ala. App. 352, 285 So.2d 516. See Cooper v. State, 287 Ala. 728, 252 So.2d 108 (1971).
Writ denied.
HEFLIN, C. J., and MERRILL, HARWOOD and FAULKNER, JJ., concur.