Rule 402

In 1993, Johnny Lynn Old Chief was arrested following a fracas that involved at least one gunshot. The ensuing federal charges included not only assault with a dangerous weapon and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence but violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The earlier crime charged in the indictment against Old Chief was assault causing serious bodily injury. Old Chief's 1988 conviction arose from an incident in which he knowingly and unlawfully assaulted Rory Dean Fenner, resulting in serious bodily injury, in violation of federal law on an Indian reservation. He received a sentence of five years' imprisonment, as reflected in the order of judgment and commitment dated December 18, 1988. Before trial, Old Chief filed a motion asking the district court to bar the government from mentioning or introducing evidence of the name and nature of his prior conviction. He offered instead to stipulate that he had been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment exceeding one year and proposed a jury instruction stating that fact. The Assistant United States Attorney refused to join in a stipulation, insisting on his right to prove his case his own way, and the District Court agreed, ruling orally that, "If he doesn't want to stipulate, he doesn't have to." The district court denied the motion, ruling that the government was not required to stipulate. At trial, over renewed objection, the Government introduced the order of judgment and commitment for Old Chief's prior conviction. This document disclosed that on December 18, 1988, he "did knowingly and unlawfully assault Rory Dean Fenner, said assault resulting in serious bodily injury," for which Old Chief was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The jury found Old Chief guilty on all counts. Old Chief appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the district court's evidentiary ruling. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a split among the circuits on the admissibility of the details of prior convictions when a defendant offers to stipulate.

Guy Rufus Huddleston was charged with one count of selling stolen goods in interstate commerce under 18 U.S.C. § 2315 and one count of possessing stolen property in interstate commerce under 18 U.S.C. § 659. The two counts related to two portions of a shipment of stolen Memorex videocassette tapes that Huddleston was alleged to have possessed and sold. A trailer containing over 32,000 blank Memorex videocassette tapes with a manufacturing cost of $4.53 per tape was stolen from the Overnight Express yard in South Holland, Illinois, sometime between April 11 and 15, 1985. On April 17, 1985, Huddleston contacted Karen Curry, the manager of the Magic Rent-to-Own in Ypsilanti, Michigan, seeking her assistance in selling a large number of blank Memorex videocassette tapes. After assuring Curry that the tapes were not stolen, he told her he wished to sell them in lots of at least 500 at $2.75 to $3 per tape, and Curry subsequently arranged for the sale of a total of 5,000 tapes which Huddleston delivered to the purchasers, who apparently believed the sales were legitimate. The government introduced evidence of similar acts. Paul Toney, a record store owner, testified that in February 1985 Huddleston offered to sell new 12-inch black and white televisions for $28 apiece, indicated he could obtain several thousand of them, and ultimately sold Toney a total of 38 televisions at the Magic Rent-to-Own. Undercover FBI agent Robert Nelson testified that in May 1985 Huddleston offered to sell him 28 refrigerators, 2 ranges, and 40 icemakers for $8,000; Huddleston was arrested shortly after arriving at the parking lot to transfer the appliances, which were determined to have a value of approximately $20,000 and to be part of a stolen shipment. Huddleston testified that the Memorex tapes, the televisions, and the appliances had all been provided by Leroy Wesby, who had represented that all of the merchandise was obtained legitimately, and that he had sold 6,500 Memorex tapes for Wesby on a commission basis without knowledge that any of the goods were stolen. The jury convicted Huddleston on the possession count only. A divided panel of the Sixth Circuit initially reversed the conviction but on rehearing affirmed it, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a conflict among the Courts of Appeals.

Two minors brought suit against Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, claiming they suffered limb reduction birth defects because their mothers had taken Bendectin, a drug prescribed for morning sickness to about 17.5 million pregnant women in the United States between 1957 and 1982. Limb reduction defects occur in fewer than one birth out of every 1000. Scientists do not know the mechanism by which any teratogen causes such defects. The plaintiffs offered testimony from three groups of experts. One group proposed to testify to a statistical link between Bendectin ingestion during pregnancy and limb reduction defects based on reanalyses of published studies that had reported no such association. A second group proposed to testify that Bendectin causes limb reduction defects in humans because it causes such defects in laboratory animals. A third group proposed to testify based on the similarity of Bendectin's chemical structure to other drugs suspected of causing birth defects. The district court granted summary judgment to Merrell Dow after excluding the plaintiffs' expert testimony. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, reversed, and remanded for consideration under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. On remand, the Ninth Circuit examined the affidavits and prior trial testimony of the plaintiffs' experts. None of the experts had studied the effect of Bendectin on limb reduction defects before being hired to testify in this or related cases. None had published his work on Bendectin in a scientific journal. The only review their work had received was by judges and juries. Plaintiffs' epidemiological experts made vague assertions of a statistically significant relationship between Bendectin and birth defects but did not state that the relative risk exceeded two. With the exception of Dr. Palmer, the remaining experts were willing to testify only that Bendectin is capable of causing birth defects. Dr. Palmer alone was willing to testify that Bendectin did cause the limb defects in each of the children, based on his review of the plaintiffs' medical records and his conclusion that Bendectin is a teratogen.

On the evening of April 15, 1989, two white Air Force police officers named Jane Smith and Tony McCormack were walking back to their dormitories at Fort Dix, New Jersey, after seeing a movie. They sat under a glass-enclosed bus shelter to avoid light rain. A black male wearing a wool cap and tan nylon jogging suit entered the shelter, drew a small silver handgun, robbed McCormack of his wallet containing an unsigned $100 money order, and forced Smith to perform fellatio on him while threatening to shoot McCormack. After the assailant fled when a car drove by, the victims contacted military police. Investigator Christine Amos suggested they look at a wanted board containing eight posters with composite sketches and photographs. McCormack immediately identified a photograph of defendant Richard Stevens, and Smith agreed it resembled the attacker though he appeared heavier in the photo. Smith then went to Walson Army Community Hospital where a doctor administered a rape crisis kit and attempted to secure semen samples from her saliva and clothing, producing three glass slides. The FBI laboratory later performed serological testing on one slide containing sufficient semen, which consumed all material on the slide and prevented DNA testing. A consent order had directed the FBI to preserve samples if possible after its own tests so Stevens could conduct DNA testing. The government made remaining materials available to the defense nearly six weeks later, but testing proved inconclusive. Stevens was indicted on charges of aggravated sexual assault and robbery within the special territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Stevens's first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked. At the second trial in March 1990, the district court permitted expert testimony on cross-racial identifications, weapon focus, and stress but excluded testimony on the lack of correlation between confidence and accuracy in identifications. The court also excluded testimony from Tyrone Mitchell, who had been robbed at gunpoint three days later at Fort Dix in a similar manner; Mitchell did not identify Stevens, and the fruits of both crimes ended up near Fort Meade, Maryland. The jury convicted Stevens on both counts, and the district court sentenced him to 168 months of incarceration. Stevens appealed, challenging the destruction of the semen sample, the wanted board identification, the admission of pretrial services testimony, the limits on expert testimony, and the exclusion of the Mitchell evidence. The Third Circuit reviewed the record developed at the Wade hearing, the Brady motion hearing, the Downing hearing on expert testimony, and the trial proceedings.