Rule 404
E354854
cross-reference provision
exception for non-propensity purposes
exception to the character evidence rule in criminal cases
notice requirement provision in criminal cases
provision of the Federal Rules of Evidence
rule of evidence
subparagraph of Rule 404(a)
subparagraph of Rule 404(b)
subsection of Rule 404
Rule 404 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Evidence that generally prohibits using a person’s character or prior bad acts to prove they acted in conformity with that character on a particular occasion, subject to limited exceptions.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Rule 404 canonical | 2 |
| Rule 404 (which governs admissibility of character evidence) | 1 |
| Rule 404 of the Federal Rules of Evidence | 1 |
| Rule 404(b) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3392716 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Rule 404 Context triple: [Article IV – Relevance and Its Limits, contains, Rule 404]
-
A.
Rule 44
Rule 44 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the right to and appointment of counsel for defendants in federal criminal cases, including issues of joint representation and potential conflicts of interest.
-
B.
Rule 37
Rule 37 is a provision of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that governs sanctions and remedies for failures to make disclosures or cooperate in discovery during civil litigation.
-
C.
Rule 4
Rule 4 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the issuance and execution of arrest warrants and summonses in federal criminal cases.
-
D.
Rule 41
Rule 41 is a provision of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that governs the voluntary and involuntary dismissal of civil actions in federal court.
-
E.
Rule 41
Rule 41 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the issuance and execution of search and seizure warrants in federal criminal investigations.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Rule 404 Target entity description: Rule 404 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Evidence that generally prohibits using a person’s character or prior bad acts to prove they acted in conformity with that character on a particular occasion, subject to limited exceptions.
-
A.
Rule 44
Rule 44 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the right to and appointment of counsel for defendants in federal criminal cases, including issues of joint representation and potential conflicts of interest.
-
B.
Rule 37
Rule 37 is a provision of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that governs sanctions and remedies for failures to make disclosures or cooperate in discovery during civil litigation.
-
C.
Rule 4
Rule 4 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the issuance and execution of arrest warrants and summonses in federal criminal cases.
-
D.
Rule 41
Rule 41 is a provision of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that governs the voluntary and involuntary dismissal of civil actions in federal court.
-
E.
Rule 41
Rule 41 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that governs the issuance and execution of search and seizure warrants in federal criminal investigations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
cross-reference provision
ⓘ
exception for non-propensity purposes ⓘ exception to the character evidence rule in criminal cases ⓘ notice requirement provision in criminal cases ⓘ provision of the Federal Rules of Evidence ⓘ rule of evidence ⓘ subparagraph of Rule 404(a) ⓘ subparagraph of Rule 404(b) ⓘ subsection of Rule 404 ⓘ subsection of Rule 404 ⓘ |
| allows |
a defendant to offer evidence of an alleged victim’s pertinent trait
ⓘ
a defendant to offer evidence of the defendant’s pertinent trait ⓘ the prosecutor to offer evidence to rebut character evidence offered by the defendant ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving absence of mistake ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving identity ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving intent ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving knowledge ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving lack of accident ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving motive ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving opportunity ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving plan ⓘ use of other acts evidence for proving preparation ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
alleged victim in a criminal case
ⓘ
civil cases ⓘ criminal cases ⓘ defendant in a criminal case ⓘ |
| generalRule |
character evidence is not admissible to prove conduct in conformity with that character on a particular occasion
ⓘ
evidence of a person’s character or character trait is not admissible to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character or trait ⓘ evidence of any other crime, wrong, or act is not admissible to prove a person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character ⓘ |
| hasException |
Rule 404(a)(2)
ⓘ
Rule 404(a)(3) ⓘ Rule 404(b)(2) ⓘ |
| hasSubdivision |
Rule 404(a)
ⓘ
Rule 404(b) ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
U.S. federal courts
ⓘ
surface form:
United States federal courts
|
| partOf |
rules of evidence for the federal courts
ⓘ
surface form:
Federal Rules of Evidence
|
| primaryPurpose | to regulate the admissibility of character evidence and other acts evidence ⓘ |
| prohibits |
propensity reasoning based on character evidence
ⓘ
use of other acts evidence to prove propensity ⓘ |
| refersTo |
Rule 608
ⓘ
Rule 609 ⓘ Rules 607 ⓘ |
| requires |
prosecutor to provide reasonable notice of other acts evidence in a criminal case
ⓘ
that admissible character or other acts evidence be offered for a permissible non-propensity purpose ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
character evidence
ⓘ
crimes, wrongs, or other acts ⓘ impeachment of a witness ⓘ prior bad acts evidence ⓘ propensity inference from character evidence ⓘ |
| subjectTo | Rule 403 balancing test ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Rule 404 Description of subject: Rule 404 is a provision of the Federal Rules of Evidence that generally prohibits using a person’s character or prior bad acts to prove they acted in conformity with that character on a particular occasion, subject to limited exceptions.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Rule 404(b)
this entity surface form:
Rule 404 of the Federal Rules of Evidence
this entity surface form:
Rule 404 (which governs admissibility of character evidence)