Opinion ID: 727620
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Suppression of the Other Mailings Evidence

Text: 26 Next, Oliver argues that the district court erred in admitting the portion of Arnold's testimony describing packages, other than the two intercepted by the Postal Service on July 14, 1993, mailed by him to various persons in Louisville between May 1992 and July 1993. Oliver concedes that he did not make this objection at trial and thus we review this contention for plain error. FED.R.EVID. 103; United States v. Mendez-Ortiz, 810 F.2d 76, 78 (6th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 922 (1987). The plain error doctrine is to be used only in exceptional circumstances and only where the error is so plain that  'the trial judge and prosecutor were derelict in countenancing it.'  United States v. Hook, 781 F.2d 1166, 1172 (6th Cir.) (quoting United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163 (1982)), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 882 (1986). 27 Oliver contends that the other mailings evidence should have been excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Specifically, he asserts that the introduction of testimony from a law enforcement official regarding the other mailings was unfairly prejudicial because the inference to be drawn from those mailings is that he regularly transported controlled substances through the mails, and yet, there was no evidence that they actually contained drugs. We find no merit in Oliver's position. The other mailings are circumstantial evidence of the conspiracy charged in the indictment. We do not deem any prejudice resulting from the admission of this relevant evidence to be unfair. See Mendez-Ortiz, 810 F.2d at 79 (stating that  '[u]nfair prejudice' as used in Rule 403, does not mean the damage to the defendant's case that results from the legitimate probative force of the evidence; rather, it refers to evidence which tends to suggest decision on an improper basis).