California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Brown, A132090 (Cal. App. 2012):
We conclude the evidence of these prior incidents was not unduly prejudicial. When determining prejudice, relevant factors include "whether the prior acts of domestic violence were more inflammatory than the charged conduct, the possibility the jury might confuse the prior acts with the charged acts, how recent were the prior acts, and whether the defendant had already been convicted and punished for the prior offense(s)." (People v. Rucker (2005) 126 Cal.App.4th 1107, 1119.) Here, none of the acts were more inflammatory than the stabbing incident that he was charged with, there was no danger of juror confusion, the acts were fairly recent (none were less than five years old), and defendant had not been charged with any offenses with respect to these acts.
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