ER 404, 405 and victim's past conviction

Two men were convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman. On appeal they argued that the trial court should have admitted evidence of the woman's previous conviction for domestic violence, when she was sentenced to attend anger management classes. That evidence, they argued, would "impeach her testimony that she was not the type of person to yell or become physically confrontational." Division 2 disagreed, saying that excluding the evidence was within the trial court's discretion. State v. Smith, 2005 WL 15388 (Wash. App. Jan. 4, 2005) (unpublished).

Categories: 404(b), 405, impeachment, evidence, cases,