Keeping in mind you are playing Devils Advocate. I can see how from a risk and prevention perspective, prior convictions are highly relevant. The ML example fa

Keeping in mind you are playing Devils Advocate. I can see how from a risk and prevention perspective, prior convictions are highly relevant. The ML example factors into this. Banks would not be unwise to lock the doors when a person with 9 bank robbery convictions walks past. In fact, I would suspect that even if the jurors should base it just on the facts, the person is more likely to end up in front of the court because the police would run through the list of convicted bank robbers in the area. The risk of an incorrect conviction for this person must go up. The facts standing on their own is important because it's not just about risk prevention, ML learning is a (potentially highly accurate) guess, but still a guess. Admitting prior convictions is basically the same for humans, it fires up the predictive nature of our brains.