B.M. v. State

WELLS, Chief Judge.

B.M., a juvenile, was charged with resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. At trial, he was precluded from adducing evidence that the officer whom he allegedly resisted used excessive force during and following the arrest and about an internal affairs complaint B.M. brought against that officer. We find that the trial court erred in excluding this impeachment evidence:

The Sixth Amendment, as incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment, guarantees a defendant in a state criminal prosecution the right to a full and fair opportunity to…