This text is designed for use in a Evidence course as a stand-alone chapter. Specifically, this material covers FRE 410. Federal Rule of Evidence 410 was an attempt to codify common law precedent finding that withdrawn guilty pleas, pleas of nolo contendere, and offers to plead guilty and nolo contendere were inadmissible against an accused.
This material is about Federal Rule of Evidence 609: Impeachment by Evidence of Criminal Conviction. The goal of the party in impeaching a witness is to use the witness’s prior conviction(s) to prove that the witness has a propensity to be deceitful and that the witness is likely acting in conformity with that propensity by lying on the witness stand and/or when making a prior statement admit…
The Rape Shield Rule, contained in Federal Rule of Evidence 412 and state counterparts is a Rule preventing the admission of evidence concerning the sexual predisposition and behavior of an alleged victim of sexual misconduct, subject to certain exceptions. Through a series of cases and hypotheticals drawn from actual cases, this chapter gives readers a roadmap for how to address any Rape Shiel…