CALIFORNIA EVIDENCE: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
...Witness Credibility Evidence
......Prior Convictions
.........Cases: Use of Prior Felonies
 15 Cards On This Topic:
  • Evidence of dismissed felony conviction not admissible to attack P's credibility, nor did Ds articulate any other relevant basis for admitting it.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Prior felony conviction must involve moral turpitude to be admissible; court retains §352 discretion to exclude moral turpitude prior.
  • Felony involving honesty or veracity admissible subject to court's discretion.
  • 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.
  • Trial court retains discretion to exclude prior conviction involving moral turpitude.
  • 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.
  • Impact of Prop 8. on admissibility of prior felony convictions.
  • Witness improperly impeached with murder convictions; do not show propensity to falsify.
  • Court properly refused to allow witness to be impeached by 3 felony convictions suffered in her youth, more than 20 years before trial testimony.


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