Evidence Commons^™

Please, Let's Bury The Junk: The Codis Loci And The Revelation Of Private Information, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

This Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy paper describes the four possible ways in which genetic loci could possess predictive or diagnostic value with regard to diseases and explains why these mechanisms have not led, and probably cannot lead, to useful screening tests with the Convicted Offender DNA Index System (CODIS) profiles in national, state, and local databases. It then considers the phenotypes and familial relationships that the CODIS STRs can be used to identify. The profiles carry limited information about an individual's race and familial relationships, and the article places the resulting privacy issues in perspective. Finally, the paper comments …

Peer Review And Publication: Lessons For Lawyers, Susan Haack

Articles

No abstract provided.

After Thirty Years, Is It Time To Change The Vehicle Inventory Search Doctrine?, Nicholas B. Stampfli

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Comment will describe the inventory search as it has developed in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence in order to provide background and understanding of the procedure as it stands today. Part III will address the difficulties in applying the Supreme Court's approach by comparing the differences in police department policies. Part IV will then closely examine Washington's somewhat laudable approach to inventory searches, the limits the state has placed on the scope of inventory searches, and the steps the state has taken to impose a consent requirement. Last, Part V will suggest much needed reforms for Washington …

Finding The Golden Mean With Daubert: An Elusive, Perhaps An Impossible, Goal, Robert P. Mosteller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Idealizing Science And Demonizing Experts: An Intellectual History Of Expert Evidence, Jennifer L. Mnookin

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road: Thinking About Expert Evidence As Expert Testimony, Simon A. Cole

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Finding The Golden Mean With Daubert: An Elusive, Perhaps Impossible, Goal, Robert P. Mosteller

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Daubert Challenges To Firearms (“Ballistics”) Identifications, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Prosecutors, Ethics, And Expert Witnesses, Paul C. Giannelli, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

Commentators who have examined the DNA exonerations have noted the disturbing role that prosecutors have played in these wrongful convictions. Another significant contributor to these miscarriages of justice is the misuse of expert testimony, a third of the cases according to some sources. This Article examines the intersection of these two factors - the prosecutor's role in using and presenting expert testimony.

Prosecutorial misconduct may occur during most stages of a trial, beginning with the selection of witnesses, including the improper "shopping" for experts. Additional abuses occur when prosecutors fail to abide by rules governing the pretrial disclosure of scientific …

He Said, She Said: Why Pennsylvania Should Adopt Federal Rules Of Evidence 413 And 414, Jessica D. Khan

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Expertise In Action: Presenting And Attacking Expert Evidence In Dna Fingerprinting Cases, Michael Lynch

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Supersizing Daubert Science For Litigation And Its Implications For Legal Practice And Scientific Research, Gary Edmond

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Parol Evidence Under The Cisg: The "Homeward Trend" Reconsidered, 68 Ohio St. L.J. 133 (2007), Karen H. Cross

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

The CISG has been described as one of history 's most successful attempts to harmonize international commercial law. Consistent with its goal of harmonizing the law of international sales, Article 7(1) of the CISG instructs courts and arbitrators to interpret the Convention in light of "its international character and the need to promote uniformity in its application. " MCC-Marble v. Ceramica Nuova D'Agostina is a U.S. decision that has been praised for its adherence to Article 7(1). In contrast with conventional academic commentary, which praises MCC-Marble and criticizes the tendency of courts to interpret the CISG in light of their …

A Proposal To Amend Rule 407 Of The Federal Rules Of Evidence To Conform With The Underlying Relevancy Rationale For The Rule In Negligence And Strict Liability Actions, 3 Seton Hall Cir. Rev. 435 (2007), Ralph Ruebner, Eugene Goryunov

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Youngblood Success Stories: Overcoming The "Bad Faith" Destruction Of Evidence Standard, Teresa N. Chen

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Agument For Original Intent: Restoring Rule 801 (D) (1) (A) To Protect Domestic Violence Victims In A Post-Crawford World., Andrew King-Ries

Faculty Law Review Articles

Prosecution of domestic violence is extremely difficult, largely due to the fact that defendants are successfully pressuring victims to refuse to testify or to recant their testimony at trial. With its decision in Crawford, the Supreme Court eliminated the ability of prosecutors to use hearsay exceptions to place the domestic violence victim's statements before the jury for their substantive consideration. The Supreme Court also closed this avenue to combat defendants' efforts to avoid liability through coercive pressure on victims. Therefore, the Court's change in the Confrontation Clause law limits the prosecution's arsenal for combating witness intimidation and, at the same …

A Suspicionless Search And Seizure Quagmire: The Supreme Court Revives The Pretext Doctrine And Creates Another Fine Fourth Amendment Mess, Edwin J. Butterfoss

Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends the Supreme Court's use of a primary purpose test to regulate suspicionless searches and seizures by the government is misguided and will provide little or no protection against the evils that apparently led the Court to strike down recent schemes by government officials. The evil of the government schemes is less the purpose of the schemes than their expansion into areas and activities in which citizens should be protected from government intrusion in the absence of any suspicion of wrongdoing. Rather than facing this head on and carefully assessing whether the government schemes infringe on such areas …

The Existentialist And The River: An Essay In The Memory Of Robert Popper, Dean Of The Umkc Law School, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Cross-Examination Earlier Or Later: When Is It Enough To Satisfy Crawford?, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Daubert's Erie Problem, Jennifer M. Wolsing

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Revisiting 'Dreyfus': A More Complete Account Of A Trial By Mathematics, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

Legal literature and case law depicts the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the irresistible power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked and uncomprehended. To the contrary, the defects in the mathematical proof were dramatically exposed, and this evidence did not lead Dreyfus's judges to condemn him. This history undercuts the reliance of modern courts and commentators on Dreyfus as an indication or illustration of the alleged dangers of probability evidence …

The Science Of Dna Identification: From The Laboratory To The Courtroom (And Beyond), David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on sequences of DNA base-pairs, which are becoming increasingly important in the field of law. These DNA sequences are used by forensic scientists to discover evidence such as blood stains, semen, saliva, and hair, and has become highly useful in the courtroom with regard to exonerating the innocent and convicting the guilty. Part I of the article examines how courts may (or may not) admit DNA evidence in court through four phases: uncritical acceptance; serious challenges to analytical methods and statistical interpretation of the results; renewed acceptance of DNA evidence; and acceptance of advance systems of DNA …

Truth, Deterrence, And The Impeachment Exception , James L. Kainen

Faculty Scholarship

James v. Illinois permits illegally-obtained evidence to impeach defendants, but not defense witnesses. Thus far, all courts have construed James to allow impeachment of defendants' hearsay declarations. This article argues against allowing illegally-obtained evidence to impeach defendants' hearsay declarations because doing so unduly diminishes the exclusionary rule's deterrent effect. The distinction between impeaching defendants and defense witnesses disappears when courts allow prosecutors to impeach defendants' hearsay declarations. Because defense witnesses report exculpatory conduct of a defendant who always has a substantial interest in disguising his criminality, their testimony routinely incorporates defendant hearsay. Defense witness testimony thus routinely paves the way …

Circumventing Daubert In The Gene Pool, Erica Beecher-Monas

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Charlotte A. Dauphin

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

I hope you enjoy the third issue of the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology for the 2006-2007 academic year, our Annual Survey of Electronic Discovery. This is our first annual survey since the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which at the time of this publication have been in effect for several months, that affect electronic discovery in several significant ways. The entire staff of the Journal has worked diligently to bring these articles to our readers. Whether you are new to the Journal and electronic discovery, or whether you are a long-time reader, you will …

In Pursuit Of Frcp 1: Creative Approaches To Cutting And Shifting The Costs Of Discovery, Mia Mazza, Emmalena K. Quesada, Ashley L. Sternberg

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The most important rule of all is the last sentence of [FRCP] 1, which provides that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ‘shall be construed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.’ It is this command that gives all the other rules life and meaning and timbre in the realist world of the trial court.

The Two-Tier Discovery Provision Of Rule 26(B)(2)(B) - A Reasonable Measure For Controlling Electronic Discovery?, Theodore C. Hirt

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

One of the most innovative provisions in the newly-effective amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure addressing electronic discovery may be the creation of a two-tier system for the discovery of electronically stored information, under new Rule 26(b)(2)(B). This rule states that “[a] party need not provide discovery” of such information “from sources that the party identifies as not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost.”

Information Inflation: Can The Legal System Adapt?, George L. Paul, Jason R. Baron

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Information is fundamental to the legal system. Accordingly, lawyers must understand that information, as a cultural and technological edifice, has profoundly and irrevocably changed. There has been a civilization- wide morph, or pulse, or one might say that information has evolved. This article discusses the new inflationary dynamic, which has caused written information to multiply by as much as ten thousand-fold recently. The resulting landscape has stressed the legal system and indeed, it is becoming prohibitively expensive for lawyers even to search through information. This is particularly true in litigation.

Litigating Brady V. Maryland: Games Prosecutors Play, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

By any measure, Brady v. Maryland has not lived up to its expectations. Brady's announcement of a constitutional duty on prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence to defendants embodies, more powerfully than any other constitutional rule, the core of the prosecutor's ethical duty to seek justice rather than victory. Nevertheless, prosecutors over the years have not accorded Brady the respect it deserves. Prosecutors have violated its principles so often that it stands more as a landmark to prosecutorial indifference and abuse than a hallmark of justice. Moreover, as interpreted by the judiciary, Brady actually invites prosecutors to bend, if not break, …

Evidentiary Wisdom And Blinders In Perspective: Thoughts On Misjudging, Elaine W. Shoben

Scholarly Works

Empirical studies serve to enlighten the law, even when they simply confirm the wisdom of existing rules. Chris Guthrie's article, Misjudging, primarily serves that useful function—confirming the wisdom of existing rules—even though the author sought to establish something different. Guthrie's article applies insights from cognitive psychology to the resolution of legal disputes and presents some empirical proof of the effect of the application. He concludes that three sets of “blinders”—informational, cognitive, and attitudinal—affect the ability of judges to reach correct resolutions of disputes. He therefore recommends further appreciation of the ability of arbitration and mediation to avoid some of the …