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Liesa L. Richter

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Full-Text Articles in Evidence

Character Assassination: Amending Federal Rule Of Evidence 404(B) To Protect Criminal Defendants, Liesa L. Richter Dec 2017

Character Assassination: Amending Federal Rule Of Evidence 404(B) To Protect Criminal Defendants, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

There is a war raging over the admissibility of the prior bad acts of criminal defendants in federal trials. While many circuits treat Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) as a rule of “inclusion” and liberally admit such prior bad-acts evidence with predictably explosive effects on criminal juries, a few circuits are developing rigorous standards designed to foreclose prosecutorial use of such bad-acts evidence. This Article chronicles the well-documented permissive admission of the prior bad acts of criminal defendants notwithstanding the prohibition on such evidence by Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b)(1), as well as recent efforts by some federal circuits to …

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Goldilocks And The Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions, Liesa L. Richter Dec 2017

Goldilocks And The Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

Criticism of the hearsay exceptions embodied in the Federal Rules of Evidence has reached a fever pitch in recent years. With scholars calling for the abrogation of the entire hearsay regime or of individual exceptions within it and the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules exploring hearsay amendments, the time for genuine hearsay soul-searching may be at hand. This Article suggests that aggressive proposals to scuttle existing doctrine entirely in favor of alternative approaches to hearsay are overly broad, rejecting the benefits of significant portions of existing doctrine that are functioning well and threatening costly consequences that could make matters worse …

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Reality Check: A Modest Modification To Rationalize Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions, Liesa L. Richter Feb 2016

Reality Check: A Modest Modification To Rationalize Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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Posnerian Hearsay: Slaying The Discretion Dragon, Liesa L. Richter Oct 2015

Posnerian Hearsay: Slaying The Discretion Dragon, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

Distinguished jurist and scholar, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit penned a concurrence in United States v. Boyce, 742 F.3d 792 (7th Cir. 2014), in which he launched a scathing attack on the scheme of categorical hearsay exceptions embodied in the Federal Rules of Evidence. After characterizing the existing hearsay regime as bad “folk psychology,” Judge Posner called for the repeal of categorical hearsay exceptions in favor of case-by-case determinations about the “reliability” of particular hearsay statements by trial judges. Prior to adoption of the Federal Rules, evidence experts debated whether a case-by-case …

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Seeking Consistency For Prior Consistent Statements: Amending Federal Rule Of Evidence 801(D)(1)(B), Liesa L. Richter Jan 2014

Seeking Consistency For Prior Consistent Statements: Amending Federal Rule Of Evidence 801(D)(1)(B), Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

The Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Evidence was hard at work in 2013 trying to bring resolution to a mystery that has plagued Rule 801(d)(1)(B) since its enactment thirty-eight years ago. Scholars, judges, and litigants have long pondered why the drafters of Rule 801(d)(1)(B) carved out a hearsay exemption for prior consistent statements admitted to repair impeaching attacks on witness motivations, but failed to extend the same treatment to other similarly situated prior consistencies admitted to repair other types of impeaching attacks. In May 2013, the Advisory Committee proposed an amendment to Rule 801(d)(1)(B) in an effort to …

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Panel Discussion: Reinvigorating Rule 502, Liesa L. Richter Feb 2013

Panel Discussion: Reinvigorating Rule 502, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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Making Horses Drink: Conceptual Change Theory And Federal Rule Of Evidence 502, Liesa L. Richter Feb 2013

Making Horses Drink: Conceptual Change Theory And Federal Rule Of Evidence 502, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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Comment On The Proposed Amendment To Evidence Rule 801(D)(1)(B), Liesa L. Richter Feb 2013

Comment On The Proposed Amendment To Evidence Rule 801(D)(1)(B), Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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Comment On Proposed Federal Rule Of Evidence 502(C), Liesa L. Richter Dec 2006

Comment On Proposed Federal Rule Of Evidence 502(C), Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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Is Oklahoma Balancing The Scales Of Justice By Tying The Hands Of Trial Judges: The 2002 Amendment To Section 2403 Of The Oklahoma Evidence Code Mandating Admission Of In-Life Victim Photographs In Homicide Cases, Liesa L. Richter Dec 2002

Is Oklahoma Balancing The Scales Of Justice By Tying The Hands Of Trial Judges: The 2002 Amendment To Section 2403 Of The Oklahoma Evidence Code Mandating Admission Of In-Life Victim Photographs In Homicide Cases, Liesa L. Richter

Liesa L. Richter

No abstract provided.

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