Opinion ID: 197677
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Lane's Testimony.

Text: 50 During trial, Eric Lane, a British customs official, testified that the appellant spoke to him anent DTI's earlier warning that virtually all computers sent to Libya ended up in arms factories. The appellant objected to this testimony on relevancy grounds and added that, to the extent the testimony might otherwise be admissible, it was unduly prejudicial. He argued then, and reasserts now, that since U.S. law bans the export of any product (except certain humanitarian aid) to any Libyan entity, the fact that a DTI official had warned him that computer shipments would be used to outfit Libyan arms factories is irrelevant to any crime charged in the indictment. For its part, the government points to the appellant's admission that he knew all along that the U.S. embargo at least paralleled United Nations sanctions (which explicitly prohibit the sale of equipment destined for Libyan military applications), and that, in light of this admission, Lane's testimony tended to undercut the appellant's claim that he did not realize the Afromed transaction transgressed U.S. law. 51 The district court accepted the government's position, but told the jury that it could consider the proffered testimony only with regard to McKeeve's state of mind (i.e., whether he plotted to contravene the Libyan embargo in knowing violation of IEEPA) and not for the truth of the matter asserted. We review this decision for abuse of discretion. See Houlihan, 92 F.3d at 1297. We detect no abuse either in the trial court's decision to admit Lane's testimony as probative of McKeeve's state of mind or in its refusal to exclude the proffer under Fed.R.Evid. 403. 52 The relevancy objection requires scant comment. Fed.R.Evid. 401 deems relevant evidence that has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. The instant indictment charged the appellant with knowingly and willfully violating, and conspiring to violate, IEEPA. His state of mind, assessable only by indirect proof, see United States v. St. Michael's Credit Union, 880 F.2d 579, 600 (1st Cir.1989), was of critical importance to the resolution of these charges. When, as now, the prosecution offers evidence bearing on an inherently subjective inquiry, the relevancy threshold is at its lowest. See United States v. Tierney, 760 F.2d 382, 387 (1st Cir.1985). Seen in this light, Judge Keeton reasonably could conclude--as, indeed, he did--that McKeeve's knowledge of the likely end use of the computer equipment tended to make less probable his state-of-mind defense. Hence, the judge did not err in admitting the statement. 53 The Rule 403 objection is similarly unavailing. That rule directs a trial court to exclude relevant evidence if, inter alia, its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. But almost all evidence is meant to be prejudicial--why else would a party seek to introduce it?--and it is only unfairly prejudicial evidence that must be banished. See United States v. Rodriguez-Estrada, 877 F.2d 153, 156 (1st Cir.1989). Although the Lane testimony may have prejudiced the appellant in the sense that it fit, tongue and groove, into the prosecution's theory of the case, there is nothing unfair about the jury's weighing of it for the limited purpose of determining the appellant's state of mind. For this reason, we decline the appellant's invitation to second-guess the district judge's evidentiary gravimetry. See Freeman v. Package Mach. Co., 865 F.2d 1331, 1340 (1st Cir.1988) (Only rarely--and in extraordinarily compelling circumstances--will we, from the vista of a cold appellate record, reverse a district court's on-the-spot judgment concerning the relative weighing of probative value and unfair effect.). 54