Opinion ID: 199698
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Impeachment by Stale Conviction

Text: 27 Meserve argues that the district court erred by allowing the government to use a conviction for theft that was over twenty years old to impeach Morissette. The government raises three counter-arguments: First, as Meserve did not contemporaneously object to the question, the issue was not preserved for appeal. Second, because Federal Rule of Evidence 609 does not render such impeachment evidence per se inadmissible, the lack of an objection deprived the district court of the opportunity to make the appropriate rulings with respect to its admissibility. Third, even if error occurred, it was harmless. 28 Meserve concedes that he failed to make a contemporaneous objection at the time of Morissette's cross-examination. Thus, this court reviews the district court's allowance of this impeachment evidence for plain error. Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b); Fed. R. Evid. 103(d). Review for plain error entails a quadripartite showing: (1) that there was error; (2) that it was plain; (3) that the error affect[ed] substantial rights; and (4) that the error affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Eirby, 262 F.3d 31, 36 (1st Cir. 2001) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 465-67 (1997); United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 731-32 (1993). In a plain error argument, the defendant bears the burden of persuasion. United States v. Rose, 104 F.3d 1408, 1414 (1st Cir. 1997). 29 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 609(b), evidence of a conviction is not admissible to impeach a witness if a period of more than ten years has elapsed since the date of the conviction or of the release of the witness from the confinement imposed for that conviction, whichever is the later date . . . . Id. Thus, because Morissette's conviction for theft occurred in 1978 and she had been released from any confinement by 1980, the conviction was stale under the terms of Rule 609(b). See United States v. Orlando-Figueroa, 229 F.3d 33, 46 (1st Cir. 2000). 30 It is not clear, however, that the error was plain. Rule 609(b) contains an exception, which establishes that evidence of convictions over ten years old may be admissible if the court determines, in the interests of justice, that the probative value of the conviction supported by specific facts and circumstances substantially outweighs its prejudicial effect. Fed. R. Evid. 609(b). Meserve's failure to make a timely objection to the admission of the evidence deprived the district court of the opportunity to determine whether the probative value of the evidence substantially outweighed its prejudicial effect. Thus, the plainness of the error cannot be established on the current record. 31 And even if, by some stretch, this court were to conclude that the admission of a conviction over ten years old as impeachment evidence under the circumstances of this case constituted plain error, Meserve cannot satisfy his burden of showing that the error seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of [the] judicial proceeding[], Johnson, 520 U.S. at 469 (quoting Olano, 507 U.S. at 736) (internal quotation marks omitted). As the government points out, [t]he subject of Morissette's prior conviction occupied a single question, produced a single answer and neither party returned to the topic again either in the testimony or in summations. See, e.g., United States v. Tse, 135 F.3d 200, 209-10 (1st Cir. 1998) (finding harmless error where the improperly admitted evidence played an insignificant role in the proceedings). Even Meserve seems to acknowledge that the admission of a single piece of impeachment evidence against a single defense witness is not capable of depriving him of substantial rights. Instead, Meserve attempts to argue that the impeachment evidence was particularly likely to be damaging because it was followed by the improper cross-examination of [Kevin]. The argument that the cumulative effect of multiple errors warrants reversal, however, is distinct from the argument that the admission of impeachment evidence against Morissette -- in and of itself -- constitutes reversible error. Viewed alone, the use of a stale conviction to impeach Morissette, even if such evidence was admitted in violation of Rule 609(b), was not a sufficiently egregious violation of Meserve's rights to have deprived the proceedings of their fundamental integrity and fairness. 32