United States v. John E. Irvin and Thomas E. Pastor

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that in the appropriate context “gang evidence has probative value warranting its admission over claims of prejudice”
• adding that “[g]uilt by association is a genuine concern whenever gang evidence is admitted,” and concluding that the district court had erred by admitting certain gang- affiliation evidence
• recognizing “substantial risk of unfair prejudice attached to gang affiliation evidence,” since such evidence “is likely to be damaging to a defendant in the eyes of the jury” because of the negative public view of gangs (internal quotation marks omitted)
• balancing the low proba- tive value of gang-membership tattoo evidence in proving non-conspiracy drug charges and the high prejudicial value of tattoos and motorcycle gang affiliation in finding error in the trial court’s admission of the evidence
• gang evidence gratuitous because conspiracy not charged and joint venture did not need to be proved
• probative value of gang affiliation evidence may in some cases warrant its admission over claims of prejudice

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).