Opinion ID: 3000832
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of Stipulation

Text: Dabney first contends that the district court erred by allowing into evidence his admission, in the prior statecourt proceeding, that he possessed the gun in question on the night in question. He argues that his prior admission was inadmissible because it created a danger of “unfair prejudice [or] confusion of the issues.” See FED. R. EVID. 403. We review a district court’s ruling on the admissibility of evidence for abuse of discretion. United States v. Aldaco, 201 F.3d 979, 985 (7th Cir. 2000). The parties entered into the stipulation regarding Dabney’s state-court admission after the district court’s split ruling on Dabney’s motion in limine, excluding evidence of the guilty plea itself but allowing evidence of Dabney’s state-court admission to possessing the gun. The admission was certainly compelling evidence of Dabney’s guilt, but there was nothing unfairly prejudicial about it. “ ‘Unfair prejudice’ refers to ‘the capacity of some concededly relevant evidence to lure the fact finder into declaring guilt on a ground different from proof specific to the offense charged.’ ” United States v. Coleman, 179 F.3d 1056, 1062 (7th Cir. 1999) (citing Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172, 180 (1997))). It is hard to No. 06-2192 5 imagine proof more specific to the offense charged than the defendant’s own admission under oath to the essential facts constituting the offense. The district court diminished any possibility of confusion regarding the separate state and federal judicial proceedings by taking the unnecessary precaution of excluding any reference to the fact that Dabney’s statements were made during a guilty plea hearing. See United States v. Haddad, 10 F.3d 1252, 1258 (7th Cir. 1993) (state-court guilty pleas are admissible as party admissions in subsequent federal court proceedings). The district court was well within its discretion in admitting the evidence of Dabney’s state-court admission.