Can a witness be impeached with any prior conduct involving moral turpitude whether or not it resulted in a felony conviction?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Linden, B264263 (Cal. App. 2016):

"A witness may be impeached with any prior conduct involving moral turpitude whether or not it resulted in a felony conviction, subject to the trial court's exercise of discretion under Evidence Code section 352." (People v. Clark (2011) 52 Cal.4th 856, 931.) "Because the [trial] court's discretion to admit or exclude impeachment evidence 'is as broad as necessary to deal with the great variety of factual situations in which the issue arises' [citation], a reviewing court ordinarily will uphold the trial court's exercise of discretion [citations]." (Id. at p. 932.) Appellant concedes that his 1992 conviction for lewd act on a child is a crime involving moral turpitude, but argues that the title should have been

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sanitized to minimize the prejudicial effect of a prior felony conviction. We find no prejudicial abuse of discretion. As noted, the 1992 conviction was mentioned only once by each side in a summary manner, and the prosecutor's comments referring to appellant's prior convictions focused on their relevance to appellant's credibility. (See People v. Hinton (2006) 37 Cal.4th 839, 888 ["Each side elicited the fact of the three impeaching convictions in very summary fashion. Defendant could not have been prejudiced by this procedure."].) In any event, given appellant's admission of multiple other felony convictions, we discern no prejudice.

E. Admission of Prior Conviction Allegations

1. Relevant Factual Background

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Can a witness be impeached with any prior conduct involving moral turpitude? (California, United States of America)
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