CALIFORNIA EVIDENCE: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
...Witness Credibility Evidence
......Prior Convictions
.........In General
10 Cards On This Topic:

With certain statutory exceptions, evidence of witness' prior felony convictions admissible to attack credibility.

DA's impeaching defense W with prison sentence to prove not the fact of underlying conviction (EC 788), but rather that he had nothing to lose by lying (EC 780(f)), was harmless error.

Prior felony conviction for purposes of impeachment under EC 788 means any conviction suffered before trial, regardless of whether it predates or postdates charged crime.

D could not impeach W with prior felony conviction given it was 14 years old and fact he was armed would not have revealed any further character trait that would have been pertinent.

Prior felony conviction must involve moral turpitude to be admissible; court retains §352 discretion to exclude moral turpitude prior.

Moral turpitude defined.

Convictions of witness for the prosecution properly excluded where they were over twenty years old, and witness had committed no other crimes of moral turpitude in the interim.

Prior theft convictions of defendant on trial for theft properly admitted where convictions were five years old or less and not unduly prejudicial.

Harmless error to modify prior felony impeachment instruction to allow jury to determine if D's felony conviction was one "involving moral turpitude" defined by court as "involving dishonesty."

Prior felony conviction, for purposes of impeachment under Evid. Code §788, is any conviction suffered before trial, regardless of offense date.