Court Opinion

ID: 9484287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:47:29.751026+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:08.789424
License: Public Domain

WALKER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I fully concur with the conclusions reached by the majority in this appeal, and write separately only to express my disagreement with one portion of the majority’s analysis.
Because the stipulation with respect to Gilliam’s felony conviction satisfied the prior conviction element of the charged 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) offense, the majority states that “it [was] by definition not prejudicial” within the meaning of Fed.R.Evid. 403. Majority Opinion at 101. I disagree. I think it is undeniable that the stipulation posed a risk of unfair prejudice to defendant Gilliam. However, because the risk of unfair prejudice did not substantially outweigh the very high probative value of the stipulation, it was properly admitted into evidence.
Rule 403 requires a trial court to determine whether the probative value of evidence on a disputed issue in a case “is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.” Fed.R.Evid. 403. Evidence is not unfairly prejudicial to the extent that it serves the proper purpose for which it is potentially admissible. United States v. Figueroa, 618 F.2d 934, 943 (2d Cir.1980). However, otherwise admissible evidence always poses a risk of unfair prejudice if it has “an undue tendency to suggest decision on an improper basis, commonly, though not necessarily, an emotional one.” Fed.R.Evid. 403, advisory committee note; see United States v. Deutsch, 987 F.2d 878, 884 (2d Cir.1993). While proof of a prior conviction may be highly probative with respect to an issue in dispute in a criminal case, for example, by tending to prove intent within the meaning of Fed.R.Evid. 404(b), it is unfairly “prejudicial to the extent that it also tends to prove a defendant’s propensity to commit crimes.” Figueroa, 618 F.2d at 943; see also Fed. R.Evid. 404(b) (precluding admission of bad acts evidence in the Government’s direct case to “prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith”); Michelson v. United States, 335 U.S. 469, 475, 69 S.Ct. 213, 218, 93 L.Ed; 168 (1948) (prosecution “may not show defendant’s prior trouble with the law” to establish that “he is by propensity a probable perpetrator of the crime”).
Rule 403 thus requires trial courts to balance the probativeness of evidence of prior crimes or other “bad acts” against the risk of unfair prejudice. See United States v. Everett, 825 F.2d 658, 661 (2d Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1069, 108 S.Ct. 1035, 98 L.Ed.2d 999 (1988); Figueroa, 618 F.2d at 943. Courts have recognized this repeatedly in the context of Rule 404(b). See, e.g., Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681, 691, 108 S.Ct. 1496, 1502, 99 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988); Everett, 825 F.2d at 661; Figueroa, 618 F.2d at 943.
A stipulation like the one at issue here is not unfairly prejudicial insofar as the jury employs it, as instructed, to establish that the prior conviction element of § 922(g)(1) is satisfied. However, while a jury might employ the proof of a prior conviction for this proper purpose, as in any case where the Government proffers evidence of prior crimes, there is a risk that the jury might also improperly use it to infer that a defendant has a propensity to commit the charged offense.
Having said that the stipulation posed a risk of unfair prejudice to defendant Gilliam, I do not mean to suggest that it should not have been admitted. Rather, in this or any other § 922(g)(1) case, the probativeness of such a stipulation will never be substantially *105outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice it poses. A stipulation is the least unfairly prejudicial means of satisfying the prior conviction element of § 922(g)(1) available to the Government. But to say, as I do, that a stipulation of prior conviction will always pass muster under Rule 403 is not the same as stating, as the majority does, that “¡wjhere the prior conviction is essential to proving the crime, it is by definition not prejudicial.” Since such a stipulation could be used for an improper purpose, I believe the proper analysis is to regard the stipulation as posing a risk of unfair prejudice, but one that is substantially outweighed by its probative value under Rule 403.
Since I am in full agreement with the majority that the option, suggested by Gilliam, of keeping from the jury knowledge of the prior offense element of the offense would compromise the Government’s right to a fair trial and with the majority’s conclusion that such a stipulation must be admitted in every § 922(g)(1) case, I concur.