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Evidence — other acts — harmless error

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//October 21, 2014//

Evidence — other acts — harmless error

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//October 21, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Evidence — other acts — harmless error

Although it was error to admit evidence of a prior methamphetamine conviction, the error was harmless.

“Of course, the government is not free to introduce all sorts of evidence simply because the defense opened the door to one piece of evidence. Defense counsel did not open the door to evidence of who possessed the methamphetamine in the house. As we mentioned, Wyatt’s admission to possessing those drugs came out during the government’s direct examination. So the government was in no position to cure a problem that its own witness created on direct examination by impeaching the witness with Schmitt’s conviction for the methamphetamine. That would be extremely prejudicial to Schmitt, since he was not the one testifying and did not open the door to that evidence. See Fed. R. Evid. 609 (allowing the government to impeach a witness by evidence of a criminal conviction, but subject to Rule 403). The defense, through its questioning of Wyatt, contested motive and made evidence going to that issue more probative. But the defense’s questioning did not make the issue of who possessed the user quantity of methamphetamine that was found in Schmitt’s home any more relevant. Since information that Schmitt was convicted of possessing the meth-amphetamine was part of the conviction record, but was not relevant for any purpose other than to impeach the government’s witness, the district court should have redacted the portion of the conviction record pertaining to the methamphetamine, or simply allowed the government to read the relevant portion of the conviction into the record. But the prosecution’s case would not have been ‘significantly less persuasive had the improper evidence been excluded.’ Loughry, 660 F.3d at 975. There was already ample evidence before the jury to suggest that Schmitt was a drug dealer, which could lead a reasonable juror to infer that he had a reason to have a firearm. Being a user of drugs does not necessarily carry the same connotation, so removing the additional evidence that Schmitt used methamphetamine and pills would not have made the government’s case that he possessed the firearm ‘significantly less persuasive.’ So we find that the error in admitting it was harmless.”

Affirmed.

13-2894 U.S. v. Schmitt

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Young, J., Williams, J.

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