United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 alleging that defendant-corrections officer used excessive force after plaintiff did not comply with his orders, judgment pursuant to a jury verdict for defendant is reversed and remanded for new trial where: 1) the use of prior convictions older than ten years to enhance a sentence for a separate conviction pursuant to California's Three Strikes Law does not bring those prior convictions within the ten year time limit of Federal Rule of Evidence 609, for purposes of being admissible impeachment evidence; and 2) Heck v. Humphrey does not create a rule of evidence exclusion and therefore may not be used to bar relevant evidence.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/16/2008
• Decided 06/11/2008
• Published 06/11/2008

Judges

• TROTT, Circuit Judge:, Before:  STEPHEN S. TROTT and SIDNEY R. THOMAS, Circuit Judges, and MICHAEL R. HOGAN, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Carter C. White, Supervising Attorney, and Anjuli Fiedler and Rachel Golick, Certified Law Students, U.C. Davis School of Law, Davis, CA, for the plaintiff/appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Misha D. Igra, Deputy Attorney General, Sacramento, CA, for the defendant/appellee.