Motion Evidence

If you plead not guilty, the court or jury can only be made aware of any convictions in certain circumstances. The relevant law is known as the 'bad character provisions.

We often let the client know that just because no case was filed, the evidence of the prior bad acts may be admissible later to show things like motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, planning, knowledge, identity or absence of a mistake or accident or lack of a good faith belief that a victim consented to a

Beyond a reasonable doubt. Not only must the prosecution introduce evidence of guilt, it must prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the prosecution presents some evidence, but not enough to clearly prove that the defendant committed the crime, the jury should find the defendant not guilty.

Generally, prosecutors can't use evidence of prior convictions to prove a defendant's guilt or tendency to commit crimes, but they can sometimes use them to question the truthfulness or credibility of the defendant's testimony.

Testimony of prior bad acts, wherein testimony of wrongs that cannot be proven or which are barred from prosecution by the statute of limitations, are generally inadmissible to prove criminal conduct.

Under the Federal Rule of Evidence (often referred to as the FRE) section 609, prior criminal convictions can only be used if the conviction was punishable by more than one year in prison, and the value of the evidence does not result in an unfair advantage to the prosecution.

Character evidence is admissible in a criminal trial if offered by a defendant as circumstantial evidencethrough reputation or opinion evidenceto show their own character, as long as the character evidence the defendant seeks to introduce is relevant to the crime with which the defendant is charged.

There are two basic factors that are considered when determining whether evidence is admissible or not: Relevant The evidence must prove or disprove an important fact in the criminal case. If the evidence doesn't relate to a particular fact, it is considered "irreelvant" and is therefore inadmissible.