Opinion ID: 63763
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility of Brazoria County conviction

Text: Goodrum contends that his conviction in Brazoria County became final during the pendency of the indictments and therefore became available to impeach his testimony at trial. As noted by the district court, the state appeals court reasoned that whatever prejudice may have resulted from the admissibility of the recent Brazoria County conviction was substantially mitigated by Goodrum's 12 to 13 other prior felony convictions, which, though over 10 years old, could also be used to impeach Goodrum's testimony under Rule 609(b) of the Texas Rules of Evidence. [62] Goodrum, characterizing this ruling as an unreasonable determination of the facts unsupported by any evidence presented by the State, asserts the district court erred when it declined to review the state court's conclusion that the prior convictions were not too remote to be admitted. We disagree. The admissibility of Goodrum's numerous other convictions for impeachment purposes involves a question of law, not fact. More importantly, it is not the province of a federal habeas court to reexamine state-court determinations on state-law questions such as the admissibility of evidence under state procedural rules. Estelle v. McGuire. [63] Goodrum neither asserts nor demonstrates that the evidentiary ruling itself violated a specific constitutional right or rendered his trial fundamentally unfair, the sole exceptions on habeas to the non-reviewability of such a ruling. See Johnson v. Puckett. [64] The district court did not err in deferring to the ruling of the state court regarding the admissibility of Goodrum's other convictions. The availability of the Brazoria County conviction in this case also resulted in no actual prejudice to Goodrum. Not only had the State stipulated that it would not use that conviction to impeach him, but the trial itself never occurred because Goodrum pleaded nolo contendere to the Harris County charges. To the extent that Goodrum relies on the State's initial threat to enhance Goodrum's sentence based on the conviction, the records reflect that the State later agreed to abandon the enhancement paragraphs in exchange for his plea. The prior conviction was therefore not used as a basis for enhancing Goodrum's sentence. In sum, the state court reasonably determined that Goodrum was not prejudiced by the Brazoria County conviction.