California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Loera, C075450 (Cal. App. 2014):
As to defendant's claim that the court's exclusion of this evidence violated his right to present a defense, it did not. He got in the defense he wanted, which was that he intended to use the altered pen as a screwdriver and that it was designed to do so because it had a flat surface. As a general matter, application of the ordinary rules of evidence do not impermissibly infringe on a defendant's right to present a defense. (People v. Edwards (2013) 57 Cal.4th 658, 728.)
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