Evidence Commons^™

Do Sexually Violent Predator Laws Violate Double Jeopardy Or Substantive Due Process? An Empirical Inquiry, Tamara Rice Lave, Justin Mccrary

Articles

No abstract provided.

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Tamara Rice Lave, Aviva Orenstein

Articles

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …

Realizing The Potential Of The Principled Approach To Evidence, Lisa Dufraimont

Articles & Book Chapters

Ron Delisle's concern that lawyers and judges be constantly mindful of the purposes and policies underlying the rules of evidence led him to become one of the pioneers of the principled approach to evidence. This paper seeks to evaluate the extent to which the efforts of Canadian courts to incorporate principles into evidence law have alleviated the problem of the complexity of the traditional rules. Evidentiary rules are complex because they are dense or technical. Evidentiary principles are more capable of flexible and contextual application than evidentiary rules, but principles too are complex in the sense that they are less …

Comments: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging And The Law Today: The Brain Is Reliable As A Mitigating Factor, But Unreliable As An Aggravating Factor Or As A Method Of Lie Detection, Kristina E. Donahue

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Educating For The Future: Teaching Evidence In The Technological Age, Denise H. Wong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The advent of the technological age has had significant effect on litigation practice, none more so than in the area of evidence gathering and presentation in court. A significant proportion of evidence that is gathered for both criminal and civil matters is now electronic in nature, and this necessitates a change in the way that lawyers think and advise on evidential issues. It is argued here that rather than simply focusing on principles relating to the admissibility of evidence in court, the traditional course on evidence law should be modified to equip students with an intellectual framework that conceives of …

Speaking Science To Law, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

involving a strong scientific consensus, the powerful qualities of scientific knowledge are easily lost in translation. Moreover, even prominent scientists who are committed to providing accurate information to legal fact-finders may suffer reputational harm simply for participating in an adversarial process.

This article analyzes the connection between law and science through the expert witness from the perspectives of epistemology and cross-cultural communication, focusing on the distinct ways in which scientists and lawyers know, value and express their knowledge. When a lawyer meets with a scientific expert witness, more confusion attends their interaction than either likely realizes. Linguistic translation is necessary--but …

Strategic Austerity: How Some Law School Affordability Initiatives Could Actually Improve Learning Outcomes, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

The legal profession is facing profound and perhaps irreversible changes. Whether you view these striking demographics as a “crisis” likely depends on the location of your perch. If you are a tenured professor at a T14 law school or a senior partner at an NLJ 250 firm, you may view the trends we have been discussing today as cyclical corrections. If you are an unemployed graduate looking for work or an untenured professor at a lower-tier school that is struggling to stay afloat, you may be more likely to view these trends as permanent and paradigm shifting.

While applications to …

Brain Trauma, Pet Scans And Forensic Complexity, Jane Moriarty, Daniel Langleben, James Provenzale

Jane Campbell Moriarty

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a medical imaging technique that can be used to show brain function. Courts have admitted PET scan evidence in cases involving brain damage, injury, toxic exposure, or illness ("brain trauma") and to support claims of diminished cognitive abilities and impulse control. Despite the limited data on the relationships between PET, brain trauma and behavior, many courts admit PET scan evidence without much critical analysis. This article examines the use of PET as proof of functional impairment and justification of abnormal behavior by explaining its diagnostic use and limitations, the limited support for claims of its …

Workplace Data: Law & Litigation (With 2014 Supplement), Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

Workplace Data: Law and Litigation provides an overview of legal issues associated with employment-related electronically stored information (ESI), focusing on discovery issues in particular. Written for employment and labor law practitioners, this new treatise offers a comprehensive overview of today’s discovery challenges, a detailed statute-by-statute analysis of data retention requirements in federal workplace-related laws, a summary of emerging workplace social media and other technology-related issues and a guide to data protection privacy laws in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Evidence, Probability, And The Burden Of Proof, Ronald J. Allen, Alex Stein

Alex Stein

This Article analyzes the probabilistic and epistemological underpinnings of the burden-of-proof doctrine. We show that this doctrine is best understood as instructing factfinders to determine which of the parties’ conflicting stories makes most sense in terms of coherence, consilience, causality, and evidential coverage. By applying this method, factfinders should try—and will often succeed—to establish the truth, rather than a statistical surrogate of the truth, while securing the appropriate allocation of the risk of error. Descriptively, we argue that this understanding of the doctrine—the “relative plausibility theory”—corresponds to our courts’ practice. Prescriptively, we argue that the relative-plausibility method is operationally superior …

Admitting Previously Undisclosed Evidence In Subsequent Proceedings As Permissible Hearsay Evidence, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

No abstract provided.

The (In)Admissibility Of False Confession Expert Testimony, David A. Perez

Touro Law Review

This Comment discusses the relationship between police interrogation tactics and false confessions in order to address the admissibility of false confession expert testimony, a question that has traditionally been left to the discretion of the trial judge. The current literature-indeed, the prevailing consensus-argues for drastic changes to police interrogation practices to prevent false confessions and, in combination with such changes, demands that expert testimony on false confessions be admitted in criminal trials. Despite the relative unanimity in the literature, state and federal courts remain bitterly divided on the question of admissibility of false confession expert testimony. Each decision in this …

The Admissibility Of Expert Testimony In North Carolina After Howerton: Reconciling The Ruling With The Rules Of Evidence, William A. Woodruff

William A. Woodruff

Part II of this paper briefly describes the federal rule in order to appreciate the context of the North Carolina approach to expert testimony. Part III traces the development of North Carolina's expert testimony law from the common law to codification in the rules of evidence through the decision in Howerton and reveals that the North Carolina test for reliability is, essentially, an evaluation of the credibility of the testifying expert. Part IV argues that Howerton's adoption of a less stringent and credibility-based substantive test for reliability but retention of the Daubert procedural "gatekeeping" role of the judge in determining …

Asymmetries And Incentives In Plea Bargaining And Evidence Production, Saul Levmore, Ariel Porat

Ariel Porat

Legal rules severely restrict payments to fact witnesses, though the government can often offer plea bargains or other nonmonetary inducements to encourage testimony. This asymmetry is something of a puzzle, for most asymmetries in criminal law favor the defendant. The asymmetry seems to disappear where physical evidence is at issue. One goal of this Essay is to understand the distinctions, or asymmetries, between monetary and nonmonetary payments, testimonial and physical evidence, and payments by the prosecution as opposed to the defense. Another is to suggest ways in which law could better encourage the production of evidence, and thus the efficient …

Can Law And Literature Be Practical? The Crucible And The Federal Rules Of Evidence, Martin H. Pritikin

West Virginia Law Review

Counter-intuitively, one of the best ways to learn the practice-oriented topic of evidence may be by studying a work of fiction-specifically, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which dramatizes the seventeenth-century Salem witch trials. The play puts the reader in the position of legal advocate, and invites strategic analysis of evidentiary issues. A close analysis of the dialogue presents an opportunity to explore both the doctrinal nuances of and policy considerations underlying the most important topics covered by the Federal Rules of Evidence, including the mode and order of interrogation, relevance, character evidence and impeachment, opinion testimony, and hearsay.

The Nursing Standard Of Care In Illinois: Rethinking The Wingo Exception In The Wake Of Sullivan V. Edward Hospital, Emily Chase-Sosnoff

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This note analyzes the current circuit split among Illinois courts over whether the same-license requirement for medical expert testimony applies to testimony about the standard of care for nurse-doctor communications. Part I traces the history of the problem by explaining the original same-license requirement, the Wingo exception for nurse-doctor communications, and the Illinois Supreme Court's decision in Sullivan, which cast doubt on Wingo's continued survival. Part II illustrates the nature of the circuit split by describing the lower courts' three distinct interpretations of Sullivan. Finally, Part III argues that courts should apply Sullivan strictly and abandon the Wingo exception because …

Georgia's New Evidence Code: After The Celebration, A Serious Review Of Anticipated Subjects Of Litigation To Be Brought On By The New Legislation, Matthew E. Cook, K. Todd Butler

Mercer Law Review

As January 1, 2013 approaches, the Georgia Bar is anticipating the new Georgia Evidence Code (GEC), House Bill 24, due to take effect on that day. Several authors have canvassed the particular changes the GEC brings to the existing Georgia Rules, of Evidence, as well as the differences between the new GEC and the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE). Those articles are commended for your reading, as they drive not only lawyers' courtroom presentation but also their trial preparation. Rather than rehashing the changes the GEC brings, this Article will address the abbreviated history preceding the passage of House Bill …

Evidence, John E. Hall Jr., W. Scott Henwood, Alex Battey

Mercer Law Review

This year represents the last survey period in which the "old" Georgia Evidence Code, Official Code of Georgia Annotated title 24, reigns. The "new" Georgia Evidence Code, which amends the O.C.G.A. and conforms in large part to the Federal Rules of Evidence, takes effect January 1, 2013. Therefore, next year's survey will undoubtedly report the ways in which Georgia courts have coped with the extensive changes. For now, courts continue to apply the existing Georgia Rules of Evidence. Cases covered in this Article were published between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012, and speak to a variety of topics …

Listing Decisions Under The Endangered Species Act: Why Better Science Isn't Always Better Policy, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

This Article offers an alternative approach to ESA listing determinations which would better combine scientific credibility with democratic legitimacy. As background to the current problem, Part II explains the origins of the ESA's stringent strictly science mandate. Part III considers the nature and limits of scientific information and explains how the scientific process can identify the best available scientific information. Part IV evaluates the specific decisions required for ESA listings in light of the strictly science mandate, explaining why these decisions require input from beyond the realm of scientific information. Part IV goes on to demonstrate that the incompatibility of …

Musical Copyright Infringement: The Replacement Of Arnstein V. Porter - A More Comprehensive Use Of Expert Testimony And The Implementation Of An "Actual Audience" Test , Michelle V. Francis

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.