Can a defendant's implied statement to police that he was a peaceful person be used as character evidence in a criminal case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Hall, 23 Cal.App.5th 576, 232 Cal.Rptr.3d 865 (Cal. App. 2018):

knocking down a straw man of its own making. Moreover, Evidence Code section 1102, subdivision (b) allows the prosecution to introduce character evidence in the form of opinion or reputation evidence only, not specific acts of misconduct such as prior convictions or the facts underlying them. ( People v. Wagner (1975) 13 Cal.3d 612, 619, 119 Cal.Rptr. 457, 532 P.2d 105.) To the extent the trial court here concluded, after mulling it over, that defendant's implied statement to police "he's a peaceful person allows the District Attorney to get into the facts underlying that particular crime," the court abused its discretion under Evidence Code sections 1101 and 1102.

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