Midlands Rules Of Evidence Practice Test

The key idea is that evidence of crimes, wrongs, or other acts is not admissible to prove a person’s character in order to show they acted in conformity with that character on a particular occasion. That prohibition is found in Rule 404(b)(1), which is titled Prohibited Uses. In other words, you can’t use prior acts to label someone as the kind of person who would commit the crime. However, Rule 404(b) also allows such acts to be used for other legitimate purposes—like showing motive, intent, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake—provided the evidence is relevant and the risk of unfair prejudice is managed under Rule 403. The other rules referenced cover different concepts (character evidence offered by the defendant or victim, habit/routine practice, and the general balancing framework), so they don’t address the explicit prohibition described here.