Old Chief v. United States

Old Chief v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 16, 1996 Decided January 7, 1997
Full case name	Johnny Lynn Old Chief v. United States of America
Citations	519 U.S. 172 (more) 117 S. Ct. 644; 136 L. Ed. 2d 574; 1997 U.S. LEXIS 298
Case history
Prior	Conviction affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, 56 F.3d 75 (9th Cir. 1995), cert. granted, 516 U.S. 1110 (1996).
Holding
Where the prior conviction is an element of the crime charged, evidence of a defendant's prior conviction may not be admitted if the defendant is willing to concede to the fact of the conviction.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Souter, joined by Stevens, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent	O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas
Laws applied
Fed. R. Evid. 403

Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172 (1997), discussed the limitation on admitting relevant evidence set forth in Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Under this rule, otherwise relevant evidence may be excluded if the probative value of the evidence is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, misleading the jury, or considerations of undue delay, wasting time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. In this case, Old Chief offered to stipulate to the fact of a prior conviction, which was an element of the crime with which he was charged. The prosecution resisted this stipulation, arguing that it had the right to present its case in any manner it chose. In Old Chief, the Court applied Rule 403 to the particular situation presented by this case, and concluded that Rule 403 required the trial court to accept the defendant's stipulation to a prior conviction over the prosecution's objection.