What is the test for admitting evidence of bad conduct in a criminal case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Copeland, H045245 (Cal. App. 2019):

Section 1101, subdivision (a) generally prohibits the admission of evidence "of a person's character or a trait of his or her character (whether in the form of an opinion, evidence of reputation, or evidence of specific instances of his or her conduct) . . . when offered to prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion." However, subdivision (b) of section 1101 allows the admission of a defendant's prior bad act to prove intent. "Evidence of uncharged crimes is admissible to prove . . . intent only if the charged and uncharged crimes are sufficiently similar to support a rational inference of . . . intent. [Citation.]" (People v. Kipp (1998) 18 Cal.4th 349, 369.) "The least degree of similarity is required to establish relevance on the issue of intent. [Citation.] For this purpose, the uncharged crimes need only be 'sufficiently similar [to the charged offenses] to support

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