Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
-
- American University Washington College of Law (4)
- Boston University School of Law (4)
- Penn State Law (4)
- Cornell University Law School (3)
- Duke Law (3)
-
- Santa Clara Law (3)
- University of Baltimore Law (3)
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law (3)
- Vanderbilt University Law School (3)
- Brooklyn Law School (2)
- Case Western Reserve University School of Law (2)
- Florida State University College of Law (2)
- Golden Gate University School of Law (2)
- Maurer School of Law: Indiana University (2)
- Mitchell Hamline School of Law (2)
- Saint Louis University School of Law (2)
- University of Colorado Law School (2)
- University of Michigan Law School (2)
- University of Pittsburgh School of Law (2)
- University of South Carolina (2)
- Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law (2)
- William & Mary Law School (2)
- Chicago-Kent College of Law (1)
- Florida International University College of Law (1)
- Fordham Law School (1)
- Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (1)
- Pace University (1)
- UC Law SF (1)
- University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (1)
- University of Miami Law School (1)
- Keyword
-
- Evidence (22)
- Criminal law (5)
- DNA (4)
- Expert testimony (4)
- Probability (4)
-
- Confrontation Clause (3)
- Google (3)
- Jurisprudence (3)
- Law and literature (3)
- Witnesses (3)
- Character evidence (2)
- Discovery (2)
- Evidence law (2)
- Expert evidence (2)
- Federal Rules of Evidence (2)
- Law and film (2)
- Law and humanities (2)
- Litigation (2)
- Maryland Rules of Evidence (2)
- Maryland law (2)
- Presumption of innocence (2)
- Probative value (2)
- Proof (2)
- Rape (2)
- Rosetta Stone (2)
- Testimony (2)
- 10th Circuit (1)
- 634 F. Supp.2d 897 (1)
- Absent Declarants (1)
- Administrative law (1)
- Publication
-
- Faculty Scholarship (13)
- All Faculty Scholarship (7)
- Faculty Publications (6)
- Articles (5)
- Journal Articles (4)
-
- Publications (4)
- Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals (3)
- Cornell Law Faculty Publications (3)
- Nevada Supreme Court Summaries (3)
- Rosetta Stone v. Google (Joint Appendix) (3)
- Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications (3)
- Articles by Maurer Faculty (2)
- Scholarly Publications (2)
- Working Paper Series (2)
- Amicus Briefs (1)
- Book Chapters (1)
- Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications (1)
- Faculty Working Papers (1)
- Law Faculty Research Publications (1)
- Maryland Law Review Online (1)
- McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles (1)
- Popular Media (1)
Articles 31 - 60 of 68
Full-Text Articles in Law
Identification, Individualization, Uniqueness, David H. Kaye
Identification, Individualization, Uniqueness, David H. Kaye
Journal Articles
Criminalists and many forensic scientists concerned with the identification of trace evidence have distinguished between identification and individualization, but they have not distinguished as precisely between individualization and uniqueness. This paper clarifies these terms and discusses the relationships among identification, individualization, and uniqueness in forensic-science evidence.
Rounding Up The Usual Suspects: A Logical And Legal Analysis Of Dna Trawling Cases, David H. Kaye
Rounding Up The Usual Suspects: A Logical And Legal Analysis Of Dna Trawling Cases, David H. Kaye
Journal Articles
Courts are beginning to confront a problem that has divided the scientific community - whether identifying a defendant by fishing through a database of DNA types to find a match to a crime-scene sample reduces the significance of a match. For years, the problem seemed academic. Now that the U.S. has more than five million DNA profiles from convicted offenders and suspects in a national, computer-searchable database, the question has assumed more urgency. Increasingly, individuals are being charged with crimes as a result of a match between their recorded profile and the DNA from a victim or scene of a …
'False But Highly Persuasive:' How Wrong Were The Probability Estimates In Mcdaniel V. Brown?, David H. Kaye
'False But Highly Persuasive:' How Wrong Were The Probability Estimates In Mcdaniel V. Brown?, David H. Kaye
Journal Articles
In McDaniel v. Brown, the Supreme Court will review the use of DNA evidence in a 1994 trial for sexual assault and attempted murder. The Court granted certiorari to consider two procedural issues - the standard of federal postconviction review of a state jury verdict for sufficiency of the evidence, and the district court's decision to allow the prisoner to supplement the record of trials, appeals, and state postconviction proceedings with a geneticist's letter twelve years after the trial.
This essay clarifies the nature and extent of the errors in the presentation of the DNA evidence in Brown. It questions …
Trawling Dna Databases For Partial Matches: What Is The Fbi Afraid Of?, David H. Kaye
Trawling Dna Databases For Partial Matches: What Is The Fbi Afraid Of?, David H. Kaye
Journal Articles
DNA evidence is often presented as the “gold standard” for forensic science. But this was not always the case. For years, eminent scientists complained that the estimates of the tiny frequencies of DNA types were unfounded. It took scores of research papers, dozens of judicial opinions, and two committees of the National Academy of Sciences to resolve the dispute by the mid-1990s. Since 2000, however, reports have surfaced of shocking numbers of “partial matches” among samples within large DNA databases, and some scientists have complained that the infinitesimal figures used in court to estimate the probability of a random match …
Impeachable Offenses?: Why Civil Parties In Quasi-Criminal Cases Should Be Treated Like Criminal Defendants Under The Felony Impeachment Rule, Colin Miller
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Spreigl Evidence: Still Searching For A Principled Rule, Ted Sampsell-Jones
Spreigl Evidence: Still Searching For A Principled Rule, Ted Sampsell-Jones
Faculty Scholarship
This article first examines how Minnesota’s character evidence doctrine developed, with a particular focus on the historical confusion regarding the propriety of the propensity inference. It then examines current case law and argues that Minnesota’s current Spreigl doctrine routinely allows propensity evidence. It finally proposes a choice between abandoning the current Spreigl doctrine and repealing the character rule itself. The author takes no position on which alternative should be chosen, but either is better than the status quo. The current doctrine in Minnesota is a Potemkin village.
Race, Genes And Justice: A Call To Reform The Presentation Of Forensic Dna Evidence In Criminal Trials, Jonathan Kahn
Race, Genes And Justice: A Call To Reform The Presentation Of Forensic Dna Evidence In Criminal Trials, Jonathan Kahn
Faculty Scholarship
The article considers how and when, if at all, is it appropriate to use race in presenting forensic DNA evidence in a court of law? This relatively straightforward question has been wholly overlooked by legal scholars. By pursuing it, this article promises to transform fundamentally the presentation forensic DNA evidence. Currently, it is standard practice for prosecutors to use race in presenting the odds that a given defendant's DNA matches DNA found at a crime scene. This article takes an interdisciplinary approach to question the validity of this widespread but largely uninterrogated practice. It examines how race came to enter …
The Right Remedy For The Wrongly Convicted: Judicial Sanctions For Destruction Of Dna Evidence, Cynthia E. Jones
The Right Remedy For The Wrongly Convicted: Judicial Sanctions For Destruction Of Dna Evidence, Cynthia E. Jones
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Many state innocence protection statutes give courts the power to impose appropriate sanctions when biological evidence needed for postconviction DNA testing is wrongly destroyed by the government. Constitutional claims based on wrongful evidence destruction are governed by the virtually insurmountable "bad faith" standard articulated in Arizona v. Youngblood. The wrongful destruction of DNA evidence in contravention of state innocence protection laws, however, should be governed by the standards used to adjudicate other "access to evidence" violations in criminal cases, including disclosures mandated by the rules of criminal procedure, the Jencks Act, and Brady v. Maryland. Under the "access to evidence" …
The Nrc Report And Its Implications For Criminal Litigation, Paul C. Giannelli
The Nrc Report And Its Implications For Criminal Litigation, Paul C. Giannelli
Faculty Publications
The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a landmark report on forensic science in February 2009. In the long run, the report’s recommendations, if adopted, would benefit law enforcement and prosecutors. The recommendations would allow forensic science to develop a strong scientific basis and limit evidentiary challenges regarding the reliability of forensic evidence. In keeping with its congressional charge, however, the NRC Committee did not directly address admissibility issues. Nevertheless, given its content, the report will inevitably be cited in criminal cases. Indeed, within months, the United States Supreme Court cited the report, noting …
Scientific Evidence And Prosecutorial Misconduct In The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, Paul C. Giannelli
Scientific Evidence And Prosecutorial Misconduct In The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, Paul C. Giannelli
Faculty Publications
The need for pretrial discovery in criminal cases is critical. A defendant's right to confrontation, effective assistance of counsel, and due process often turns on pretrial disclosure. This essay discusses a case that demonstrates this point.
Giles V. California: A Personal Reflection, Richard D. Friedman
Giles V. California: A Personal Reflection, Richard D. Friedman
Articles
In this Essay, Professor Friedman places Giles v. California in the context of the recent transformation of the law governing the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. He contends that a robust doctrine of forfeiture is an integral part of a sound conception of the confrontation right. One reason this is so is that cases fitting within the traditional hearsay exception for dying declarations can be explained as instances of forfeiture. This explanation leads to a simple structure of confrontation law, qualified by the principle that the confrontation right may be waived or forfeited but not subject to genuine exceptions. …
The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns
The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns
Faculty Working Papers
This short essay is a summary of my assessment of the meaning of the "vanishing trial" phenomenon. It addresses the obvious question: "So what?" It first briefly reviews the evidence of the trial's decline. It then sets out the steps necessary to understand the political and social signficance of our vastly reducing the trial's importance among our modes of social ordering. The essay serves as the Introduction to a book, The Death of the American Trial, soon to be published by the University of Chicago Press.
Will Quants Rule The (Legal) World?, Edward K. Cheng
Will Quants Rule The (Legal) World?, Edward K. Cheng
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Professor Ian Ayres, in his new book, Super Crunchers, details the brave new world of statistical prediction and how it has already begun to affect our lives. For years, academic researchers have known about the considerable and at times surprising advantages of statistical models over the considered judgments of experienced clinicians and experts. Today, these models are emerging all over the landscape. Whether the field is wine, baseball, medicine, or consumer relations, they are vying against traditional experts for control over how we make decisions. For the legal system, the take-home of Ayres's book and the examples he describes is …
Law, Statistics, And The Reference Class Problem, Edward K. Cheng
Law, Statistics, And The Reference Class Problem, Edward K. Cheng
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Statistical data are powerful, if not crucial, pieces of evidence in the courtroom. Whether one is trying to demonstrate the rarity of a DNA profile, estimate the value of damaged property, or determine the likelihood that a criminal defendant will recidivate, statistics often have an important role to play. Statistics, however, raise a number of serious challenges for the legal system, including concerns that they are difficult to understand, are given too much deference from juries, or are easily manipulated by the parties' experts. In this preview piece, I address one of these challenges, known as the "reference class problem," …
Evidence Code Section 802: The Neglected Key To Rationalizing The California Law Of Expert Testimony, David L. Faigman, Edward J. Imwinkelried
Evidence Code Section 802: The Neglected Key To Rationalizing The California Law Of Expert Testimony, David L. Faigman, Edward J. Imwinkelried
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Practical Solution To The Reference Class Problem, Edward K. Cheng
A Practical Solution To The Reference Class Problem, Edward K. Cheng
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The "reference class problem" is a serious challenge to the use of statistical evidence that arguably arises every day in wide variety of cases, including toxic torts, property valuation, and even drug smuggling. At its core, it observes that statistical inferences depend critically on how people, events, or things are classified. As there is (purportedly) no principle for privileging certain categories over others, statistics become manipulable, undermining the very objectivity and certainty that make statistical evidence valuable and attractive to legal actors. In this paper, I propose a practical solution to the reference class problem by drawing on model selection …
The Future Of Neuroimaged Lie Detection And The Law, Joelle A. Moreno
The Future Of Neuroimaged Lie Detection And The Law, Joelle A. Moreno
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Work Product Doctrine And Tax Accrual Workpapers, Steve R. Johnson
The Work Product Doctrine And Tax Accrual Workpapers, Steve R. Johnson
Scholarly Publications
In its rehearing of Textron, the First Circuit has an opportunity to rectify an error and curb unwise recent expansion of work product protection for tax accrual workpapers. In August 2007, a district court denied the government’s petition for enforcement of an IRS summons on Textron Inc. and its subsidiaries for tax accrual workpapers in connection with IRS examinations of the taxpayers’ 1998 to 2001 income tax returns. A divided panel of the First Circuit affirmed in January 2009. In March 2009, the First Circuit withdrew the panel opinion and dissent, and it set the case for en banc hearing …
Reforming The State Secrets Privilege, Amanda Frost
Reforming The State Secrets Privilege, Amanda Frost
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
No abstract provided.
A Matter Of Context: Social Framework Evidence In Employment Discrimination Class Actions, Melissa Hart, Paul M. Secunda
A Matter Of Context: Social Framework Evidence In Employment Discrimination Class Actions, Melissa Hart, Paul M. Secunda
Publications
In litigation disputes over the certification of employment discrimination class actions, social scientists have come to play a central, yet controversial, role. Organizational behavioralists and social psychologists regularly testify for the plaintiffs, offering what is commonly referred to as social framework testimony. These experts explain the general social science research on the operation of stereotyping and bias in decision making and examine the challenged workplace to identify those policies and practices that research has shown will tend to increase and those that will tend to limit the likely impact of these factors. Defendants fight hard against the admission of social …
Left Hand, Third Finger: The Wearing Of Wedding (Or Other) Rings As A Form Of Assertive Conduct Under The Hearsay Rule, Peter Nicolas
Left Hand, Third Finger: The Wearing Of Wedding (Or Other) Rings As A Form Of Assertive Conduct Under The Hearsay Rule, Peter Nicolas
Articles
No abstract provided.
Propensity Or Stereotype?: A Bad Evidence Experiment In Indian Country, Aviva Orenstein
Propensity Or Stereotype?: A Bad Evidence Experiment In Indian Country, Aviva Orenstein
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, the Federal Rules of Evidence concerning rape and child abuse, Rules 413 and 414, permit the government to admit the accused’s prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity. Although these rules have been roundly criticized, insufficient attention has been paid to the fact that in allowing propensity evidence for federal sex offenses (as opposed to offenses under state law), these rules disproportionately affect one distinct civilian population: Indians.
The de facto concentration of Rules 413-414 cases in Indian Country raises troubling questions regarding what it means to have …
A Witness To Justice, Jessica Silbey
A Witness To Justice, Jessica Silbey
Faculty Scholarship
In the 1988 film The Accused, a young woman named Sarah Tobias is gang raped on a pinball machine by three men while a crowded bar watches. The rapists cut a deal with the prosecutor. Sarah's outrage at the deal convinces the assistant district attorney to prosecute members of the crowd that cheered on and encouraged the rape. This film shows how Sarah Tobias, a woman with little means and less experience, intuits that according to the law rape victims are incredible witnesses to their own victimization. The film goes on to critique what the right kind of witness would …
On Race Theory And Norms, Christian Sundquist
On Race Theory And Norms, Christian Sundquist
Articles
This article has been adapted from an address given at the Albany Law Review Symposium in Spring 2009. This article discusses the judicial acceptance of DNA random match estimates, which uses DNA analysis to estimate the likelihood that a criminal defendant is the source of genetic material that is found at a crime scene. Relying on race, these tests demonstrate how such a re-inscription of race as a biological entity threatens the modern conception of race as a social construction, and how those estimates should be rejected as inadmissible on a doctrinal level under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
The Expanding Use Of The Res Gestae Doctrine, H. Patrick Furman, Ann England
The Expanding Use Of The Res Gestae Doctrine, H. Patrick Furman, Ann England
Publications
This article provides a brief history of the doctrine of res gestae and an analysis of its current usage in both Colorado state and federal courts.
Irreconcilable Differences? The Troubled Marriage Of Science And Law, Susan Haack
Irreconcilable Differences? The Troubled Marriage Of Science And Law, Susan Haack
Articles
No abstract provided.
Dickey V. State: Jury Instruction On Drug Use And Its Concomitant Effect On Eyewitness Credibility, Rachel M. Witriol
Dickey V. State: Jury Instruction On Drug Use And Its Concomitant Effect On Eyewitness Credibility, Rachel M. Witriol
Maryland Law Review Online
No abstract provided.
How Accountability-Based Policing Can Reinforce - Or Replace - The Fourth Amendment Exclusionary Rule, David A. Harris
How Accountability-Based Policing Can Reinforce - Or Replace - The Fourth Amendment Exclusionary Rule, David A. Harris
Articles
In Hudson v. Michigan, a knock-and-announce case, Justice Scalia's majority opinion came close to jettisoning the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule. The immense costs of the rule, Scalia said, outweigh whatever benefits might come from it. Moreover, police officers and police departments now generally follow the dictates of the Fourth Amendment, so the exclusionary rule has outlived the reasons that the Court adopted it in the first place. This viewpoint did not become the law because Justice Kennedy, one member of the five-vote majority, withheld his support from this section of the opinion. But the closeness of the vote on …
Case For A Constitutional Definition Of Hearsay: Requiring Confrontation Of Testimonial, Nonassertive Conduct And Statements Admitted To Explain An Unchallenged Investigation, The, James L. Kainen, Carrie A. Tendler
Case For A Constitutional Definition Of Hearsay: Requiring Confrontation Of Testimonial, Nonassertive Conduct And Statements Admitted To Explain An Unchallenged Investigation, The, James L. Kainen, Carrie A. Tendler
Faculty Scholarship
Crawford v. Washington’s historical approach to the confrontation clause establishes that testimonial hearsay inadmissible without confrontation at the founding is similarly inadmissible today, despite whether it fits a subsequently developed hearsay exception. Consequently, the requirement of confrontation depends upon whether an out-of-court statement is hearsay, testimonial, and, if so, whether it was nonetheless admissible without confrontation at the founding. A substantial literature has developed about whether hearsay statements are testimonial or were, like dying declarations, otherwise admissible at the founding. In contrast, this article focuses on the first question – whether statements are hearsay – which scholars have thus far …
Wanting The Truth: Comparing Prosecutions Of Investigative And Institutional Deception, Lisa Kern Griffin
Wanting The Truth: Comparing Prosecutions Of Investigative And Institutional Deception, Lisa Kern Griffin
Faculty Scholarship
Defensive dishonesty in criminal investigations has increasingly been prosecuted without standards for identifying harmful deception or other meaningful checks on prosecutorial discretion. Although they are often grouped together statistically and evaluated as comparable crimes, there is a clear distinction between investigative lies and in-court perjury. The differences between the offenses—including the standards for prosecution, the perceived victim, and the purposes of bringing charges—suggest reasons to reconsider the current approach to investigative lies such as false statements. More truth is produced, and arguably more cooperation results, when the government focuses on the quality of the information flow. The structural protections in …