The appeals court said a trial judge appeared to apply the wrong Rule 403 framework when excluding prior-conviction evidence in a child-exploitation prosecution.
What happened
The D.C. Circuit on Friday vacated orders barring prosecutors from using evidence tied to David Zobel's prior child-molestation conviction, sending the criminal case back for a fresh evidentiary ruling under the framework Congress adopted for child-molestation cases.
The panel said the district court appeared to misunderstand the interaction between Federal Rules of Evidence 403 and 414. Rule 403 allows exclusion of relevant evidence when unfair prejudice substantially outweighs probative value, but the D.C. Circuit emphasized that it sets a "high barrier" for keeping relevant evidence from a jury.
Zobel has been charged with distributing child pornography and attempting to sexually exploit a minor. Before trial, the government sought to introduce evidence of his prior conviction, arguing it was admissible under Rule 414, which permits evidence that a defendant accused of child molestation committed another child molestation and allows that evidence to be considered on any relevant matter.
The district court excluded the evidence under Rule 403, citing the risk that jurors would convict based on propensity. The appeals court said that reasoning was suspect because Rule 414 itself lifts the ordinary bar on propensity use for qualifying child-molestation evidence, meaning the district court could not treat propensity prejudice the same way it would in an ordinary Rule 404(b) case.
Writing for the panel, Judge Cornelia Pillard said the challenged evidence may be probative of both intent and identity. The opinion noted that the prior-conviction evidence could bear on whether Zobel intended the alleged conduct and on whether he was the person who sent the disputed online messages, while leaving the ultimate Rule 403 balancing to the trial court.
The court also directed the district judge to consider the government's argument that portions of the online chat referencing past crimes may have played a role in the charged offense itself. Judge Gregory Katsas concurred, agreeing that the Rule 403 weighing should be done by the district court in the first instance. The case now returns for reconsideration of the excluded evidence under the D.C. Circuit's guidance.