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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Model For Fixing Identification Evidence After Perry V. New Hampshire, Robert Couch
A Model For Fixing Identification Evidence After Perry V. New Hampshire, Robert Couch
Michigan Law Review
Mistaken eyewitness identifications are the leading cause of wrongful convictions. In 1977, a time when the problems with eyewitness identifications had been acknowledged but were not yet completely understood, the Supreme Court announced a test designed to exclude unreliable eyewitness evidence. This standard has proven inadequate to protect against mistaken identifications. Despite voluminous scientific studies on the failings of eyewitness identification evidence and the growing number of DNA exonerations, the Supreme Court's outdated reliability test remains in place today. In 2012, in Perry v. New Hampshire, the Supreme Court commented on its standard for evaluating eyewitness evidence for the first …
Expanding Forfeiture Without Sacrificing Confrontation After Crawford, Joshua Deahl
Expanding Forfeiture Without Sacrificing Confrontation After Crawford, Joshua Deahl
Michigan Law Review
The central holding of Crawford v. Washington is fairly straightforward: The Confrontation Clause bars the admission of out-of-court testimonial statements unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine the witness. Crawford, however, has an often overlooked caveat. In renouncing numerous exceptions to the confrontation right, the Court rejected only those that purport to test the reliability of testimonial statements. It left equitable exceptions undisturbed. As the Court pointed out, "[T]he rule of forfeiture by wrongdoing (which we accept) extinguishes confrontation claims on essentially equitable grounds." The parameters of the rule of forfeiture are a matter of some dispute. …
Videotaping Children's Testimony: An Empirical View, Paula E. Hill, Samuel M. Hill
Videotaping Children's Testimony: An Empirical View, Paula E. Hill, Samuel M. Hill
Michigan Law Review
Increases in the number of reported incidents of child abuse and sexual molestation have resulted in more and younger children becoming courtroom participants. Some courts refuse to consider the special needs of the child in this adversarial environment. Relying on questionable precedent, these courts hold that the defendant's right to directly confront the child, as well as strict compliance with evidentiary rules, overrides that child's interest in freedom from embarrassment or psychological trauma. This Note focuses on pressures felt by the testifying child and the ways in which these pressures affect her testimony; it then proposes using videotaped testimony as …
I Cannot Tell A Lie: The Standard For New Trial In False Testimony Cases, Daniel Wolf
I Cannot Tell A Lie: The Standard For New Trial In False Testimony Cases, Daniel Wolf
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines the question of what standard should be used for granting a new trial when a defendant's conviction is alleged to have been based, at least in part, on false testimony. Part I demonstrates the failure of the existing standards to strike a satisfactory balance between defendants' rights and the efficient administration of the criminal justice system. Part II argues that motions for retrial based upon false testimony should be governed by a standard drawn not only from newly discovered evidence cases generally, but also from cases involving prosecutorial misconduct. Finally, Part III suggests that the proper test …
The Future Of Confrontation, Peter K. Westen
The Future Of Confrontation, Peter K. Westen
Michigan Law Review
The Supreme Court seems to be setting the stage for a long-awaited examination of the confrontation clause. It has been ten years since the Court endeavored in Dutton v. Evans to reconcile the evidentiary rules of hearsay with the constitutional commands of confrontation. Dutton came at the tail end of a string of confrontation cases that the Court had resolved without apparent difficulty. Not surprisingly, the Court approached Dutton in the evident belief that it could resolve the constitutional problems of hearsay once and for all. Instead, after oral argument in 1969 and a rehearing in 1970, the Court found …
Compulsory Process Ii, Peter Westen
Compulsory Process Ii, Peter Westen
Michigan Law Review
This Article examines the validity of the conventional wisdom. It draws support for its analysis from the constitutional principles of compulsory process, and, in their absence, from related doctrine in the areas of a defendant's right to confront witnesses against him and his right to a fair trial. Part I of the article defines the constitutional standard that governs the simple case of a nonindigent defendant who makes a timely application to produce a witness from within the territory of the jurisdiction. Parts II through IV, in turn, examine that standard in the light of complicating factors such as the …
The Compulsory Process Clause, Peter Westen
The Compulsory Process Clause, Peter Westen
Michigan Law Review
Part I of this article traces the history of compulsory process, from its origin in the English transition from an inquisitional to an adversary system of procedure to its eventual adoption in the American Bill of Rights. Part II examines the Supreme Court's seminal decision in Washington v. Texas, which recognized after a century and a half of silence that the compulsory process clause was designed to enable the defendant not only to produce witnesses, but to put them on the stand and have them heard. Part III studies the implications of compulsory process for the defendant's case, from the …
Criminal Procedure--Evidence--Composite Drawing Not Producible Under Jencks Act--United States V. Zurita, Michigan Law Review
Criminal Procedure--Evidence--Composite Drawing Not Producible Under Jencks Act--United States V. Zurita, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Following a bank robbery, the bank manager and his wife provided descriptions enabling an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to compose drawings of the robbers which were then "approved" by each of these witnesses as being substantially accurate. At the defendant's trial four years later, he was identified by the manager and his wife as one of the robbers. The defendant, in an attempt to impeach their testimony, requested that the government be compelled under the Jencks Act to produce the original composite drawings. The trial court denied this request, stating that the production of these drawings was …
Constitutional Law-Due Process-Use Of Extraneous Evidence In Determining Criminal Sentence, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr. S. Ed.
Constitutional Law-Due Process-Use Of Extraneous Evidence In Determining Criminal Sentence, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr. S. Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Petitioner was convicted of murder in the first degree with a recommendation for life imprisonment. In reliance on police and probation reports showing petitioner's background which included over thirty burglaries for which he had never been arraigned and a "morbid sexuality," the trial judge disregarded the jury's recommendation and imposed the death sentence. Although petitioner did not have an opportunity to examine the reports prior to the sentence hearing, he was represented by counsel at the hearing and did not challenge them at that time. Petitioner contended that he had been denied due process of law because his sentence had …
Constitutional Law - Federal Criminal Procedure - Short Form Indictment, James H. Roberton
Constitutional Law - Federal Criminal Procedure - Short Form Indictment, James H. Roberton
Michigan Law Review
It is the purpose of this comment to discuss the validity under the Federal Constitution of an indictment, drawn in accordance with the proposed code, which would merely accuse the defendant of having committed some kind of "offense," and would leave the particulars of the offense to a bill of particulars.
Evidence -- Competency Of Wife To Testify Against Husband--Rules Of Evidence In Federal Court, Philip A. Hart
Evidence -- Competency Of Wife To Testify Against Husband--Rules Of Evidence In Federal Court, Philip A. Hart
Michigan Law Review
The defendant was convicted of transporting a female in interstate commerce for immoral purposes. Over the defendant's objection the trial court permitted testimony against him to be given by the defendant's wife. This ruling he assigned as error but held a wife is competent as a witness against her husband. Yoder v. United States, (C. C. A. 10th, 1935) 80 F. (2d) 665.
Criminal Law And Procedure - Right Of Accused To Be Present At Trial
Criminal Law And Procedure - Right Of Accused To Be Present At Trial
Michigan Law Review
In a prosecution for bank robbery, testimony of a witness which did not connect the accused with the crime and merely served to qualify the witness was received during the unnoticed and involuntary absence of the accused. No objection was made by the counsel for the accused who was present at the time. When the accused's absence was discovered, the motion of counsel that the cause be withdrawn from the jury was overruled and the court admonished the jury not to consider the testimony. Appellant contended that he had been denied a right and that therefore injury must be presumed. …
Evidence - Federal Practice - Competency Of Wife To Testify In Defense Of Husband In Criminal Case
Evidence - Federal Practice - Competency Of Wife To Testify In Defense Of Husband In Criminal Case
Michigan Law Review
The defendant, being tried in a federal district court on an indictment for conspiracy to violate the prohibition law, offered his wife as a witness in his behalf. The district court, following what it concluded to be the established rule of the federal courts, refused to allow her to testify. The circuit court of appeals affirmed this ruling without discussing the point. Certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court, limited to the question as to what law was applicable in determining the competency of the wife. Held, that the federal courts have the power to determine for themselves the …
Crimes-Influence From The Defendants Failure To Testify
Crimes-Influence From The Defendants Failure To Testify
Michigan Law Review
The testimony given on a trial for murder indicated that the defendant had shot and killed one of his pursuers while fleeing the scene of a robbery in which he had taken a principal part. The trial court instructed the jury that the defendant, while not compellable, was competent to be a witness in his own behalf; and that although his failure to take the stand raised no presumption of his guilt, if facts were testified to which were accusations against the defendant which he could by his oath deny, and he failed to take the stand in his own …