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Full-Text Articles in Law
Debunked, Discredited, But Still Defended: Why Prosecutors Resist Challenges To Bad Science And Some Suggestions For Crafting Remedies For Wrongful Conviction Based On Changed Science, Aviva A. Orenstein
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Flawed science has significantly contributed to wrongful convictions. Courts struggle with how to address such convictions when the mistaken science (such as bogus expert claims about the differences between accidental fires and intentionally set ones) significantly affected the guilty verdict but there is no DNA evidence to directly exonerate the accused. My short piece explores why prosecutors often defend bad science. Mistakes in science tend to serve the prosecution, but there are other more subtle factors that explain prosecutors’ reluctance to address flawed forensic testimony. Such reluctance may arise from fondness for the status quo and a resistance to subverting …
Burris V. State: Suggestions For The Continued Development Of The Rule For Admitting The Testimony Of Gang Experts, Michael Jacko
Burris V. State: Suggestions For The Continued Development Of The Rule For Admitting The Testimony Of Gang Experts, Michael Jacko
Maryland Law Review Online
No abstract provided.
Williams V. Illinois And The Confrontation Clause: Does Testimony By A Surrogate Witness Violate The Confrontation Clause?, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman
Williams V. Illinois And The Confrontation Clause: Does Testimony By A Surrogate Witness Violate The Confrontation Clause?, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This article comprises a four-part debate between Paul Rothstein, Professor of Law at Georgetown Law Center, and Ronald J. Coleman, who works in the litigation practice group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, on Williams v. Illinois, a Supreme Court case that involves the Confrontation Clause, which entitles a criminal defendant to confront an accusing witness in court. The issue at hand is whether said clause is infringed when a report not introduced into evidence at trial is used by an expert to testify about the results of testing that has been conducted by a non-testifying third party. …
Statistics In The Jury Box: How Jurors Respond To Mitochondrial Dna Match Probabilities, David H. Kaye, Valerie P. Hans, B. Michael Dann, Erin J. Farley, Stephanie Albertson
Statistics In The Jury Box: How Jurors Respond To Mitochondrial Dna Match Probabilities, David H. Kaye, Valerie P. Hans, B. Michael Dann, Erin J. Farley, Stephanie Albertson
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This article describes parts of an unusually realistic experiment on the comprehension of expert testimony on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing in a criminal trial for robbery. Specifically, we examine how jurors who responded to summonses for jury duty evaluated portions of videotaped testimony involving probabilities and statistics. Although some jurors showed susceptibility to classic fallacies in interpreting conditional probabilities, the jurors as a whole were not overwhelmed by a 99.98% exclusion probability that the prosecution presented. Cognitive errors favoring the defense were more prevalent than ones favoring the prosecution. These findings lend scant support to the legal argument that mtDNA …
Evidence: 1999-2000 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Evidence: 1999-2000 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Evidence: 1998-1999 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Evidence: 1998-1999 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Evidence: 1997-1998 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Evidence: 1997-1998 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Evidence: 1996-1997 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Evidence: 1996-1997 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Federal Rules Of Evidence--Past, Present, And Future: A Twenty-Year Perspective, Faust Rossi
The Federal Rules Of Evidence--Past, Present, And Future: A Twenty-Year Perspective, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This Essay surveys three major transformations in state and federal rules of evidence since the introduction of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Rules have not only inspired a movement toward codification in the states, they have also liberalized the admission of expert testimony and hearsay. This partially explains thirteen states' reluctance to codify. Judges have furthered this trend by admitting far more discretionary hearsay evidence than Congress intended. Professor Rossi doubts this expansion of the hearsay exceptions would have occurred without the adoption of the FRE and suggests that the newly formed Advisory Committee will produce greater substantive changes …
Experts, Stories, And Information, Richard O. Lempert
Experts, Stories, And Information, Richard O. Lempert
Articles
In the infancy of the jury trial, there were no witnesses. The jury was self-informing. Members of the jury were drawn from the community. It was expected that they would know, either firsthand or on the basis of what they had heard, the true facts of any disputed incident, and they were gathered together to say what those facts were. Ronald Allen and Joseph Miller, in their insightful paper, see the ideal of the self-informing jury as very much alive today. Allen and Miller tell us that jurors ideally should experience firsthand the factual information needed to arrive at rational …
Introduction Of Scientific Evidence In Criminal Cases, H. Patrick Furman
Introduction Of Scientific Evidence In Criminal Cases, H. Patrick Furman
Publications
No abstract provided.
Meta-Evidence: Do We Need It?, Christopher B. Mueller
Meta-Evidence: Do We Need It?, Christopher B. Mueller
Publications
No abstract provided.
The Collision Between New Discovery Amendments And Expert Testimony Rules, Paul F. Rothstein
The Collision Between New Discovery Amendments And Expert Testimony Rules, Paul F. Rothstein
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The young litigator's nightmare was always the same. He was in medieval Europe, ready to engage in a sword fight with the expert swordsman representing his arch rival. After countless hours of preparation, he felt confident that he would be able to hold his own against the swordsman. But when the swordsman drew his lengthy rapier from its sheath, the young attorney pulled only a short dagger from his scabbard. Realizing that he was doomed to defeat, he tossed his dagger into the air and ran from the scene with the laughter of the onlookers ringing in his ears.
The …
Modern Evidence And The Expert Witness, Faust Rossi
Modern Evidence And The Expert Witness, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Historical Truth, Narrative Truth, And Expert Testimony, Marianne Wesson
Historical Truth, Narrative Truth, And Expert Testimony, Marianne Wesson
Publications
No abstract provided.
Cross-Racial Identification Errors In Criminal Cases, Sheri Johnson
Cross-Racial Identification Errors In Criminal Cases, Sheri Johnson
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Silent Revolution, Faust Rossi
The Silent Revolution, Faust Rossi
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
When Death Is The Issue: Uses Of Pathological Testimony And Autopsy Reports At Trial, J. Thomas Sullivan
When Death Is The Issue: Uses Of Pathological Testimony And Autopsy Reports At Trial, J. Thomas Sullivan
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Look At Florida's Proposed Code Of Evidence, Charles W. Ehrhardt
A Look At Florida's Proposed Code Of Evidence, Charles W. Ehrhardt
Scholarly Publications
The law of evidence had been codified in three states, California, New Jersey and Kansas, prior to the United States Supreme Court's promulgation of the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence. The submission of the rules to the Congress, and their approval, as amended, by the House of Representatives served as the catalyst for renewed interest in evidence codification. Three states have recently adopted comprehensive Rules of Evidence that closely parallel the Proposed Federal Rules, and at least four other states, including Florida, have drafted or are actively considering the adoption of such a codification. During the 1974 session of the …