What is the test for admissibility of prior acts of domestic violence as propensity evidence in a criminal case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Morales, D069286 (Cal. App. 2016):

"The prejudice which exclusion of evidence under Evidence Code section 352 is designed to avoid is not the prejudice or damage to a defense that naturally flows from relevant, highly probative evidence. '[All] evidence which tends to prove guilt is prejudicial or damaging to the defendant's case. The stronger the evidence, the more it is "prejudicial." The "prejudice" referred to in Evidence Code section 352 applies to evidence which uniquely tends to evoke an emotional bias against the defendant as an individual and which has very little effect on the issues. In applying section 352, "prejudicial" is not synonymous with "damaging."'" (People v. Karis (1988) 46 Cal.3d 612, 638.)

3. Standards of review and prejudice

The admissibility of evidence of prior acts of domestic violence as propensity evidence under sections 1109 and 352 "is subject to the sound discretion of the trial court, which will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of an abuse of discretion." (People v. Poplar, supra, 70 Cal.App.4th at p. 1138.) A trial court's rulings under section 1101 are also reviewed on appeal for an abuse of discretion. (People v. Lewis (2001) 25 Cal.4th 610, 637.)

"[T]he court's exercise of discretion will not be disturbed on appeal except upon a showing that it was exercised in an arbitrary, capricious or patently absurd manner that

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resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice." (People v. Brown (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1222, 1233.)

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