Evidence Commons^™

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.

False Or Suppressed Evidence: Why A Need For The Prosecutorial Tie?, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Many United States Supreme Court decisions have overturned criminal convictions for the reason that the government employed false evidence to obtain the conviction or failed to disclose relevant evidence important to the defense. In reversing federal or state judgments, the Court often has located direct proof of wrongdoing by the prosecutor. The notorious “bloody shorts” case is an example in point. There, the state introduced as evidence a pair of men’s “blood-stained” undershorts to achieve conviction of the accused. When the blood turned out to be red paint, the Supreme Court granted habeas corpus relief to the defendant because “[ilt …

Jailing The Innocent: The Plight Of The Material Witness, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Unknown to many lawyers, American legal history is marred with numerous recorded episodes of extended imprisonment of innocent American citizens. Frequently guiltless of any offense, these citizens are held because they happen to be witnesses to a crime and are financially unable to post a bond to insure their appearance to testify at the trial of the person accused of committing it. Not simply a feature of law from a bygone era, these incidents of imprisonment continue to arise today. Occasionally, a situation occurs wherein the man accused of the crime is released on bail and spends his time before …

Highlights Of The Proposed Federal Rules Of Evidence, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Scholarly Works

To prepare a draft of proposed rules, the Chief Justice of the United States, as chairman of the Judicial Conference, appointed an Advisory Committee of fifteen members. Membership is comrpised of eight trial attorneys, the former chief of the criminal appeals unit of the Department of Justice, four federal judges, and two members of law school faculties. A third academician, Edward W. Cleary, who before teaching had 11 years of active practice, is Reporter for the Committee, furnishing many of the ideas, doing or directing most of the research, and usually doing the original drafting. After three and a half …