Law Commons^™

Scope Of Cross-Examination And The Proposed Federal Rules, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

In analyzing the proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, the drafting work of the Advisory Committee should not be overlooked. This is easy to do when any particular rule is isolated and criticized. For the most part, the total rules package prepared by the Advisory Committee represents a commendable effort to provide a needed set of uniform rules for federal trials. The ideas contained in the new rules are almost invariably well researched. When oversights or omissions in treatment do appear, however, it is well to raise these points for discussion. Congress is reviewing the Proposed Federal Rules, and the final …

Argument To The Jury And The Constitutional Right Of Confrontation, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Dean Carlson poses the question: When a prosecutor refers to evidence outside the record in his summation, has he thereby violated the accused person's constitutional right to cross-examine the witnesses against him? The prevailing view is that this is reversible error only if the defendant can prove that the reference was highly prejudicial.

After a full analysis of all the leading decisions--and these are largely analogous in nature--the author proposes a new rule and a new approach to this unexplored area.