What is the test for erroneous admission of evidence in criminal cases?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Dorsey, B252126 (Cal. App. 2015):

The erroneous admission of evidence results in a violation of a criminal defendant's right to due process if it makes a trial fundamentally unfair. (People v. Partida (2005) 37 Cal.4th 428, 439.) "To prove a deprivation of federal due process rights, [a defendant] must satisfy a high constitutional standard to show that the erroneous admission of evidence resulted in an unfair trial. 'Only if there are no permissible inferences the jury may draw from the evidence can its admission violate due process. Even then, the evidence must "be of such quality as necessarily prevents a fair trial."

Page 27

[Citations.] Only under such circumstances can it be inferred that the jury must have used the evidence for an improper purpose.' [Citation.] 'The dispositive issue is . . . whether the trial court committed an error which rendered the trial "so ' arbitrary and fundamentally unfair' that it violated federal due process." [Citation.]' [Citation.]" (People v. Albarran (2007) 149 Cal.App.4th 214, 229-230.)

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