True to Character: Honoring the Intellectual Foundations of the Character Evidence Rule in Domestic Violence Prosecutions

This article calls for a new character evidence rule allowing the admission of prior acts of abuse within the context of a current domestic violence prosecution. Section II discusses the history of domestic violence in America and explores the three ways that the law has condoned domestic violence, including implicit sanction through the effect of the character evidence rule. Section III examines the intellectual background of the character evidence ban. This section also explores the conflict between the character evidence rule and the law\u27s recognition of domestic violence. Further, Section III demonstrates how the character evidence ban violates its underlying principles in the domestic violence context. Finally, Section III articulates rationale for a new character evidence rule in the domestic violence context -- a rule consistent with the rule\u27s original intellectual underpinnings