United States v. Wright
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
901 F.2d 68 (7th Cir. 1990)
Stanley Wright (defendant), identified by undercover officers as having sold them crack cocaine, was later recorded on a wiretap roughly six months afterward telling another person he was a drug dealer and referencing other, unrelated drug crimes (not the specific sale to the officers). Charged with distributing cocaine to the undercover officers, Wright objected to the recording's introduction, but the trial judge admitted it not as character or propensity evidence, but purportedly to prove his identity and intent; Wright was convicted and appealed.
Whether evidence of a criminal defendant's prior crimes is admissible to prove the defendant's bad character or his propensity to commit crimes in conformity with that character.