Opinion ID: 749852
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the court's exclusion of phyllis' previous conviction

Text: 8 Pope's first contention is that the district court erred in not permitting him to question Phyllis Pope about her 1968 burglary conviction. We review a district court's decision to exclude evidence only for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Van Dorn, 925 F.2d 1331, 1335 (11th Cir.1991). 9 At trial, Pope sought to introduce evidence of Phyllis' 1968 burglary conviction. Federal Rule of Evidence 609(b) creates a strong presumption against the use for impeachment purposes of stale convictions, such as this one, which was twenty-eight years old at the time of this trial. When a conviction is more than ten years old, it is not admissible unless the district court determines that its probative value substantially outweighs its prejudicial effect. See Fed.R.Evid. 609(b); United States v. Pritchard, 973 F.2d 905, 908 (11th Cir.1992); see also United States v. Tisdale, 817 F.2d 1552, 1555 (11th Cir.1987) (holding that convictions older than ten years should be admitted for impeachment purposes only very rarely). Given the facts of this case, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to conclude that the probative value of Phyllis' 1968 conviction did not substantially outweigh its prejudicial effect, and to refuse to allow Pope to use it for impeachment purposes. 10