Can a prior conviction for a criminal offence be used as evidence for impeachment under section 28(f) of the California Criminal Code?

[173 Cal.App.3d 877] Section 28(f) provides in pertinent part that "[a]ny prior felony conviction of any person in any criminal proceeding ... shall subsequently be used without limitation for purposes of impeachment or enhancement of sentence in any criminal proceeding." The Attorney General reads the words "without limitation" as calling for unlimited allowance of "extrinsic evidence" to prove priors. However, those words unambiguously describe how priors are to be "used," not how they are to be proved. This construction is implicitly confirmed by People v. Castro, supra, 38 Cal.3d 301, 211 Cal.Rptr. 719, 696 P.2d 111, where the court recently held, after determining that only prior convictions involving "moral turpitude" can be used for impeachment under section 28(f): "[A]s in the Finley-Crowson line of cases, a witness' prior conviction should only be admissible for impeachment if the least adjudicated elements of the conviction necessarily involve moral turpitude." (Id., at p. 317, 211 Cal.Rptr. 719, 696 P.2d 111.)