Evidence Commons^™

The Evidence Machine: Rethinking Admissibility And Privacy In India's Ai Surveillance State, Samyukta Ramaswamy

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) surveillance technologies that utilise machine learning (‘ML’) capabilities to gather and process information to derive insights about individuals has transformed the surveillance landscape by enabling governments and private entities to engage in increasingly pervasive monitoring and data-driven profiling. In India, this transformation is compounded by the presence of executive-controlled surveillance mechanisms under the legal framework of the Telecommunications Act 2023, the Telecommunications (Procedures and Safeguards for Lawful Interception of Messages) Rules 2024, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, amongst others, which authorises wide-ranging data interception and dragnet surveillance while exempting government agencies …

Toys As Evidence, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

This Essay asks and answers a single question, which was posed during a recent symposium at the National Museum of Toys & Miniatures. Could the study of revealed preferences, which is the idea that observed behaviors are the best indicator of one’s beliefs, improve our collective understanding about what constitutes unlawful discrimination in certain U.S. markets? A possible answer, which is informed by the Brown v. Board of Education decision, is the study of revealed preferences may improve our collective understanding for three reasons.

One reason is the study of revealed preferences provides a window into how some producers and …

Mile V. Kirkbrae Country Club, 331 A.3d 1003 (R.I. 2025)., Taylor Payne

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Empirical Double Standard: Opinion Surveys Across The Civil–Criminal Divide, Kay L. Levine, Bernard Chao

Faculty Articles

Across different legal domains, liability doctrines recognize the value of community input. But do courts truly listen to the community’s voice when deciding these sorts of cases? This study is the first to explore how courts treat community opinion survey evidence within both civil and criminal law. To that end, we comprehensively examine trademark, false advertising, patent, antitrust, obscenity, death penalty, and search cases.

Our research uncovers a significant asymmetry: Courts readily admit survey evidence in civil proceedings but systematically exclude it in criminal cases. This asymmetry does not appear to stem from structural differences between civil and criminal litigation …

Keeping Evidence Real, Anya Bernstein, Julia Simon-Kerr

Faculty Scholarship

Commentators largely agree that the Federal Rules of Evidence have problems. Expert testimony standards admit junk science. Impeachment rules chill defendant testimony. The hearsay regime defies consistent application and obstructs self-representation. The list goes on: Many rules fail to assist, or affirmatively thwart, jurors trying to make good decisions. Such shortcomings disproportionately harm those with the least power in the system, raising profound questions about whether the evidence code serves its statutory mandate—to promote truth and justice in court proceedings. In the face of widely recognized problems, the government body charged with managing the evidence code—the Advisory Committee on Evidence …

Breaking Patterns Of Abuse: How Amending The Federal Rules Of Evidence Would Strengthen Domestic Violence Prosecutions, Isabelle Ryan

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trial By Character, Hillel J. Bavli

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In this Article, I argue that courts regularly deviate from Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), which prohibits character evidence—evidence of a defendant’s past misdeeds offered to prove that the defendant acted in conformity with a certain character trait on the occasion in question. These deviations undermine the fairness of a trial and the presumption of innocence. The Article addresses this problem in three ways. First, it explains how courts have misinterpreted Rule 404(b)—an error that I call the permitted-purpose fallacy—and how they have fortified this misinterpretation with a body of flawed principles and precedent. Second, it reports the results of …

Automated Writer And Acquisition-Condition Classification Of Digitally Captured Handwriting Using Statistical Dynamic Features And Support Vector Machines, Long-Huang Tsai, Hsiang-Ju Lai, Wen-Chao Yang, Jiajun Jiang, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Digitally captured handwriting preserves pen trajectories and dynamic signals, but it also records hardware- and input-dependent properties that can confound forensic interpretation. This study revises a support vector machine (SVM) screening framework using 16,500 samples from 30 writers, 11 writing-content categories, and five acquisition conditions spanning three tablets and stylus or finger input. Twenty-four raw and derived time-series variables were summarized by maximum, minimum, mean, median, and standard deviation, yielding 120 features; the mode statistic was removed. Writing direction and angular velocity were recalculated with atan2-based vector formulas. Unavailable device/API channels were encoded as zero, and Z-score parameters were estimated …

From Victim To Defendant: Battered Woman Syndrome In Support Of Duress, Samantha Casimiro

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

Section I of this article will discuss the origin and phases of BWS as well as its designation as a subcategory of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (hereinafter PTSD) and discuss the prevalence of domestic violence in our society. Section II will layout the elements of a duress defense and analyze the objective reasonableness standard as compared to the subjective reasonableness standard used in other defenses, such as self-defense, explaining that there is a level of subjectiveness that must be considered regardless of the applicable approach. Section III will analyze cases and opinions of the federal circuit courts that support the admission …

From Victim To Villain: How Gendered Narratives Shape Drug Courier Trials, Serafina C. Russo

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

This article examines how gendered stereotypes, coercive trafficking dynamics, and permissive evidentiary practices create systemic bias in criminal prosecutions of women, particularly in drug trafficking cases. It highlights how courts often allow expert testimony and generalized narratives that blur neutral analysis with character judgment, inviting jurors to rely on cultural assumptions rather than objective facts. The “blind mule” phenomenon demonstrates the human cost, disproportionately affecting women from marginalized backgrounds, and reflects violations of due process and the presumption of innocence. The article argues for judicial and legislative reforms, including rigorous enforcement and clarification of Rule 704(b), to prevent stereotypes from …

A Preemptive Strike Against The Misinterpretation Of The 2023 Amendment To Federal Rule Of Evidence 702(D): The Importance Of Preserving The Requirement For A Showing That The Expert Has Properly Applied His Or Her Methodology, Edward J. Imwinkelried

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Let’S Talk About The Biological Reality Of Sex, Baby, John Parsi

FIU Law Review

Sex is at the very core of individual identity. It affects the conception of the self and the way others view the individual. Every day, one’s sex may open and close doors, access to communities, and opportunities. Laws that define sex may affirm scientific knowledge and protect people, or threaten to unravel the facts and the reality of sex. A deep unmooring of sex is underway, and this Article aims to halt it. On day one of the current presidential term, January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological …

Justified: Reasonable Beliefs, True Beliefs, And Self-Defense, Michael D. Cicchini

Marquette Law Review

A defendant is charged with criminal battery and asserts self-defense at trial. The defense calls witnesses who would testify that, about ten minutes before the fight, the alleged victim said he was going to “find” the defendant and “end him.” But the trial judge excludes the testimony because the threat, while heard by several witnesses, was not communicated to the defendant. Therefore, the judge says, the threat cannot be relevant in determining whether the defendant “reasonably believed” he was in imminent danger at that time.

This Article explores the theoretical foundation for this common ruling and demonstrates why it is …

Misinformation And The Law, Gustavo Ribeiro

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article bridges critical gaps between the growing body of social science research on misinformation and the persistent challenges jurors face in evaluating potentially unreliable evidence in courtrooms. Misinformation—a pervasive issue undermining decision-making in democratic societies—mirrors the difficulties jurors encounter in distinguishing truth from falsehood amid compelling but unreliable evidence. The consequences of such challenges are dire: wrongful convictions, racial disparities, and the erosion of public trust in the legal system.

This Article is the first piece of legal scholarship to provide a comprehensive discussion of current research on the psychological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to misinformation—such as the illusory truth …

The Federal Rules Of Evi-Dance: Exploring And Reimagining Evidence Law Through Music, And Proposing Amendments To Rule 604, Brian C. Potts

Faculty Articles

Every trial has a rhythm and a flow. Every trial is a performance. This article extends the literature on law and music further into the field of evidence. I offer a new exploration and reimagining of the Federal Rules of Evidence through leitmotivs. I contend that leitmotivs—musical calling cards—reify principles of evidence law. As I spin these leitmotivs, I propose two amendments to Rule 604 regarding the oath for courtroom interpreters. I propound a new critique explaining how and why courts are wrong when they often claim “Daubert did not work a ‘seachange’ over federal evidence law.” I tender two …

Eroding Protections: The Decline Of Miranda Rights And Its Impact On Due Process In Contemporary America, Autumn G. Pelfrey

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines whether the protections established in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), remain robust within contemporary criminal justice practice or have been weakened through doctrinal and practical developments. Miranda warnings were originally designed to mitigate the risk that coercive custodial interrogation would produce compelled or unreliable self-incrimination. Since 1966, however, both judicial interpretation and evolving law-enforcement practices have created a growing gap between Miranda’s formal legal promise and its practical operation in real-world interrogations.

The study evaluates the erosion of Miranda’s protective force through three primary mechanisms. First, doctrinal developments have narrowed Miranda’s scope by redefining …

Youtube Journalists And The Future Of The Fourth Estate: The Fine Line Between Journalism And Entertainment, Stephan Toljan

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note argues that the legal distinction between professional journalists and social media actors has blurred due to the universal accessibility of public digital platforms. It proposes eliminating the requirement of institutional affiliation for the reporter's privilege, suggesting instead that any individual who satisfies the Von Bulow factors regarding the intent to disseminate information to the public should be eligible for the privilege.

The Devil Is In The Det[Ai]Ls: Ai Agents, Ghost Students, And The Crisis Of Verified Presence In An Agentic Ai World, Aras Bozkurt, Helen Crompton, Caroline Fell Kurban

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The transition from reactive Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to agentic AI systems marks a categorical shift in digital education, moving beyond simple content generation to goal-oriented, autonomous execution. This paper explores the emergence of the “ghost student”: a digital surrogate created by the coupling of Large Language Models (the “mind”) and agentic AI browsers (the “body”). These entities are capable of navigating Learning Management Systems (LMS), engaging with content, and completing assessments with human-like mimicry, often rendering the actual learner’s presence optional. We argue that this phenomenon creates a verification gap that traditional proctoring and detection tools are structurally unable …

Adversarial Certification Of Evidentiary Software, Nicholas G. Vincent, Bryan H. Choi, Eli Siems, Clay Halbert, Katherine J. Strandburg

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Brady Materiality Standard, Brandon L. Garrett, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Scholarship

The Brady doctrine requires prosecutors to disclose all favorable and material evidence to the defense. To effectuate that rule, the U.S. Supreme Court has defined materiality as a “reasonable probability” that the evidence would have affected the outcome at trial. But apart from that definition, the Court has resisted offering any further guidance to lower courts. While far too little is known about how Brady materiality claims are actually adjudicated, there is strong evidence that courts often reject Brady claims involving withheld evidence on the grounds that the evidence was not significant enough to be material.

To examine how Brady …