Opinion ID: 1443005
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Restriction on Cross-Examination about Drug Use

Text: DeFelice questions the district court's ruling barring cross-examination about drug use. The chief difficulty he faces on appeal is that the district court never made this ruling. As DeFelice acknowledges in his reply brief, the district court forbade only use of the word heroin, because at the time of the arrest, the officers did not know the nature of the drug or Kunz's usage and because mention of heroin would be more prejudicial than helpful. DeFelice apparently intended to cross-examine Kunz about his drug use in order to establish the foundation for O'Donnell's testimony about the impairing effects of heroin use. This court has explained when evidence of a witness's drug use may be introduced: Evidence that a witness has used illegal drugs may be probative of the witness' possible inability to recollect and relate. . . . This evidence may be admitted where the memory or mental capacity of a witness is legitimately at issue. . . . At the same time, however, there is considerable danger that evidence that a witness has used illegal drugs may so prejudice the jury that it will excessively discount the witness' testimony. . . . A court must, therefore, be chary in admitting such evidence when it is offered for the sole purpose of making a general character attack. United States v. Cameron, 814 F.2d 403, 405 (7th Cir.1987) (quotations and citations omitted). The only link between Kunz's drug use on the night in question and his recollection would have been through O'Donnell's testimony. Absent that link, additional evidence of Kunz's drug use (other than that to which he had already admitted) would only have served to raise the inference that drug users tend to lie. That inference is impermissible. United States v. Robinson, 956 F.2d 1388, 1397-98 (7th Cir.1992) (The appellants, in sum, insist that witnesses who have previously used narcotics are more likely to tell lies. This is exactly the type of character attack that Cameron and Jarrett [v. United States, 822 F.2d 1438 (7th Cir.1987)] forbid.). The district court did not abuse its discretion when it established limitations on the evidence about Kunz's drug use.