Evidence Commons^™

The Inadequacy Of Constitutional And Evidentiary Protections In Screening False Confessions: How Risk Factors Provide Potential For Reform, Nicole Tackabery

UC Irvine Law Review

The admission of a criminal defendant’s confession into evidence is almost always fatal to a defendant’s case. And this is no surprise: common sense advises that a confession is particularly incriminating and definitive in establishing a defendant’s guilt. But while a confession’s persuasiveness is not inherently problematic, its unique ability to convey guilt poses a problem when a confession happens to be false. This problem is wrongful conviction. In fact, false confessions are one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction, and individuals who are at risk due to their age, intellectual disability, and/or mental health are especially susceptible.

While …

Rethinking Evidentiary Rules In An Age Of Bench Trials, Henry Zhuhao Wang

UC Irvine Law Review

American jury trials are vanishing. Statistics indicate that the number of jury trials in U.S. federal and state courts has diminished for decades, a phenomenon that has become even more pronounced amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Courts throughout the nation are on track for more than a year without any trials by jury. But as jury trials wane, bench trials are dominant in federal and state courts for both civil and criminal cases. What does that mean, then, for evidentiary rules? The Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), first adopted in 1975, codify federal evidence law and have been adopted by …

Meta-Evidence And Preliminary Injunctions, Maggie Wittlin

UC Irvine Law Review

The decision to issue a preliminary injunction is enormously consequential; it has been likened to “judgment and execution before trial.” Yet, courts regularly say that our primary tool for promoting truth seeking at trial—the Federal Rules of Evidence—does not apply at preliminary injunction hearings. Judges frequently consider inadmissible evidence to make what may be the most important ruling in the case. This Article critically examines this widespread evidentiary practice.

In critiquing courts’ justifications for abandoning the Rules in the preliminary injunction context, this Article introduces a new concept: “meta-evidence.” Meta-evidence is evidence of what evidence will be presented at trial. …

“A Chinaman’S Chance” In Court: Asian Pacific Americans And Racial Rules Of Evidence, Gabriel J. Chin

UC Irvine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Poetry As Evidence, Gregory S. Parks, Rashawn Ray

UC Irvine Law Review

No abstract provided.