Opinion ID: 78599
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Redacted Transcript

Text: DuBose next argues that the district court erred by denying his motion to admit into evidence the entire transcript of the April 7, 2008 divorce hearing, while admitting the government's eight-page redacted version instead. He argues that the entire context in which he was apprised of the order was relevant to whether he was under a protective order covered by § 922(g)(8). He also argues that the entire transcript constituted relevant evidence that could have assisted the jury when making the determination of whether he knowingly violated § 922(a)(6) when he filled out a form to purchase a firearm. We review the district court's rulings on admission of evidence for abuse of discretion. United States v. Jiminez, 224 F.3d 1243, 1249 (11th Cir.2000). [W]hen employing an abuse-of-discretion standard, we must affirm unless we find that the district court has made a clear error of judgment, or has applied the wrong legal standard. United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244, 1259 (11th Cir. 2004). Pursuant to Rule 402 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, evidence that is not relevant is not admissible. Fed.R.Evid. 402. In the present case, the hearing at issue before Judge Drinkard concerned the divorce between DuBose and his wife. The transcript therefore covered a variety of issues, such as property division and custody. The district court allowed a redacted portion of the hearing's 110-page transcript into evidence, explaining that it did not want the jury to consider irrelevant issues. The court also allowed DuBose to extract any portions of the hearing that were relevant to the protective order so that he could enter those portions into evidence to establish context. DuBose did not take this opportunity. The court's prohibition of irrelevant evidence complied with Rule 402 and was not clear error. See Fed.R.Evid. 402. Therefore, the court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to admit the entire transcript into evidence.