CALIFORNIA EVIDENCE: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
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Witness Credibility Evidence
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Prior Convictions
.........Cases: Use of Prior Felonies
16 Cards On This Topic:
A defendant who preemptively introduces evidence of a prior conviction on direct examination may not on appeal claim that admission of the evidence was error.
Priors with which D impeached not too remote, even though D suffered them 17 years before trial where he was incarcerated all but two of years between convictions and trial.
Defense witness properly impeached by proof of prior felony convictions for nonviolent escape.
Court may admit D's 1974 and 1976 convictions to impeach; priors not too remote even if dating from 1987 retrial where D in jail since 1979.
22-year-old voluntary manslaughter conviction properly excluded under Evid. Code §352 as impeachment evidence against key DA witness.
Impact of Prop 8. on admissibility of prior felony convictions.
Trial court retains discretion to exclude prior conviction involving moral turpitude.
Prior felony conviction must involve moral turpitude to be admissible; court retains §352 discretion to exclude moral turpitude prior.
Prior convictions involving moral turpitude are admissible, but court retains discretion under Evid. Code §352 to exclude evidence of prior.
Prior conviction admissible for impeachment only if least adjudicated elements of conviction necessarily involve moral turpitude.
Witness improperly impeached with murder convictions; do not show propensity to falsify.
Felony involving honesty or veracity admissible subject to court's discretion.
Where the conduct underlying a defendant's prior felony conviction has significant probative value, evidence of the underlying conduct may be introduced upon impeachment of defendant.
Evidence of dismissed felony conviction not admissible to attack P's credibility, nor did Ds articulate any other relevant basis for admitting it.
W credibility may be attacked by felony conviction, though sentence not yet imposed; felony conviction may be wobbler since wobbler is seen as felony until judgment entered.
Court properly refused to allow witness to be impeached by 3 felony convictions suffered in her youth, more than 20 years before trial testimony.