Intro to the Federal Rules of Evidence - 6

D. EXCLUSION OF CHARACTER EVIDENCE (FRE 404)
1. Overview
Character evidence (to prove that s/he did / s/he did but …) is relevant because it affects the jury’s decision on material facts. But for policy considerations, it is excluded. The court judges the act, not the actor.

a. a desire to avoid evidence that invites sympathy or antipathy towards a party irrespective of his behavior on the occasion in question.
b. a danger of overestimation of its probative value: giving too much weight to evidence of personal traits (such as accident proneness and criminal predisposition), too little weight to evidence about the context of the specific case.
c. social beliefs in human reformability


Example 1: D, a mailman, is charged with stealing from the mails. The prosecution wants to introduce evidence that D has been convicted in the past for stealing from the mail, as well as embezzlement and robbery.

Example 2: P and D are in a car accident, and P sues D for negligent driving. P offers to prove that D has been involved in numerous car accidents in the past, some of which involved D’s being intoxicated or otherwise driving improperly.

Example 3: D is charged with killing P in a fight. As part of D’s claim of self-defense, D offers evidence to show that P had a reputation for violence, as well as evidence that he himself has always been a peaceful person.