Evidence Commons^™

Prior Inconsistent Statements: The Simple Virtues Of The Original Federal Rule, Daniel D. Blinka

Fordham Law Review

How well do hearsay rules function under the current Federal Rules of Evidence? One issue, dormant yet pulsating beneath the surface for decades, involves the admissibility of prior inconsistent statements by witnesses. The long-standing “orthodox” rule admitted the prior statement only to impeach the witness’s trial testimony; it could not be used as substantive evidence of the facts asserted. In 1972, the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence (“the Advisory Committee” or “the Committee”) proposed an innovative rule permitting all prior inconsistent statements to be used both for impeachment and as substantive evidence—a sea change in practice. Congress, …

The British Experience With Hearsay Reform: A Cautionary Tale, Mark S. Brodin

Fordham Law Review

Among the proposals being considered by the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence (“the Committee”) is the scrapping of the categorical exception regime for hearsay, leaving questions of reliability and admissibility ad hoc to district court judges along the lines of Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) 403 and 807. Over the past decades, the British have moved toward this approach, and it is the purpose of this Article to identify the lessons that can be learned from that experience, especially with regard to criminal prosecutions and the right of confrontation.

Prior Statements Of Testifying Witnesses: Drafting Choices To Eliminate Or Loosen The Strictures Of The Hearsay Rule, Daniel J. Capra

Fordham Law Review

One of the panels at the Symposium on Hearsay Reform—sponsored by the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules— considered whether the federal hearsay regime should be changed to provide for greater admissibility of prior statements of testifying witnesses. This Article is intended to provide some background to the questions addressed by the panel and to consider how the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence (“the Advisory Committee” or “the Committee”) might best implement an expansion of admissibility of prior witness statements should it decide that such an expansion is warranted.

Forward Progress: A New Pattern Criminal Jury Instruction For Impeachment With Prior Inconsistent Statements Will Ease The Court’S Burden By Emphasizing The Prosecutor’S, Hugh M. Mundy

Fordham Law Review

In this Article, I discuss the history of Rule 801(d)(1)(A), focusing on the origins and importance of the Rule’s restrictive language. In addition, I review the current federal landscape of pattern criminal jury instructions for witness impeachment with a prior inconsistent statement. Finally, I propose a revised jury instruction designed to clarify juror confusion while maintaining the critical safeguards for substantive admissibility of prior inconsistent statements.

On Hearsay, Richard A. Posner

Fordham Law Review

I need to place the remarks that follow in context. And that means I need to acknowledge a number of heresies: I don’t like legal jargon; I don’t like the complexity of legal jargon; I don’t like the legal profession’s indifference to brevity; I don’t like the tendency of lawyers and judges always to be looking to the past for answers to novel questions; and I don’t consider law to be a science or remotely like a science. I want law to be simple and commonsensical and forward-looking. I take my judicial credo from a poem by the great Irish …

Quisano V. State, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 9 (February 18, 2016), Michael Hua

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This court affirmed an appeal from a judgment of conviction, pursuant to an Alford plea, of voluntary manslaughter and child abuse, neglect, or endangerment with substantial bodily harm holding:

(1) Brady violations do not occur when the evidence in question is not favorable to the defendant;

(2) Prosecutors have a strict duty to disclose under their own open-file policy until sentencing proceedings; and,

(3) Media outlets require a written by the district court to electronically cover proceedings unless nonconstitutional or harmless error results in such coverage.

International White Collar Crime And The Globalization Of Internal Investigations, Lucian E. Dervan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Much has been written about the methods by which counsel may efficiently, thoroughly, and credibly conduct internal investigations. Given the globalization of such matters, however, this Article seeks to focus on the challenges present when conducting an internal investigation of potential international white-collar criminal activity. In Part I, this Article will examine the challenges of selecting counsel to perform internal investigations abroad. In particular, consideration will be given to global standards regarding the application of the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. In Part II, this Article will discuss the influence of data privacy and protection laws in various countries …

Third Annual Lecture On Legal Education With Jennifer L. Mnookin Of Ucla Law Part Ii, "Constructing Evidence And Educating Juries: The Case For Modular, Made-In-Advance Expert Evidence About Eyewitness Identifications And False Confessions", Jennifer L. Mnookin

Faculty Workshops

Professor Jennifer L. Mnookin, now affiliated with The University of Wisconsin Law School, presented her work Constructing Evidence and Educating Juries: The Case for Modular, Made-in-Advance Expert Evidence About Eyewitness Identifications and False Confessions. This work examines the comparison of the idea of modular testimony to several alternative methods for trying to reduce the dangers of inaccurate eyewitness identifications and false confessions.

The Promises And Perils Of Evidence-Based Corrections, Cecelia Klingele

Notre Dame Law Review

Public beliefs about the best way to respond to crime change over time, and have been doing so at a rapid pace in recent years. After more than forty years of ever more severe penal policies, the punitive sentiment that fueled the growth of mass incarceration in the United States appears to be softening. Across the country, prison growth has slowed and, in some places, has even reversed. Many new laws and policies have enabled this change. The most prominent of these implement or reflect what have been called “evidence-based practices” designed to reduce prison populations and their associated fiscal …

Dna And Distrust, Kerry Abrams, Brandon L. Garrett

Notre Dame Law Review

Over the past three decades, government regulation and funding of DNA testing has reshaped the use of genetic evidence across various fields, including criminal law, family law, and employment law. Courts have struggled with questions of when and whether to treat genetic evidence as implicating individual rights, policy trade-offs, or federalism problems. We identify two modes of genetic testing: identification testing, used to establish a person’s identity, and predictive testing, which seeks to predict outcomes for a person. Judges and lawmakers have often drawn a bright line at predictive testing, while allowing uninhibited identification testing. The U.S. Supreme Court in …

To Discovery And Beyond: A Comprehensive Look At Argentina’S Data Protection Laws, Sean Mccleary

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

This article strives to shed light on the interplay between discovery practice under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Argentina's data protection laws, and the ever-present possibility of discovery sanctions. For all intents and purposes, data protections laws serve as a double-edged sword that seek to protect an individual's privacy; however, data protection laws were not designed with litigation in mind. And because of that, it can be difficult for an Argentine company to comply with a discovery request that would implicate an individual's data privacy under Argentine law. In the end, it comes down to a balancing test. This …

What Judges Say And Do In Deciding National Security Cases: The Example Of The State Secrets Privilege, Anthony John Trenga

Duke Law Master of Judicial Studies Theses

From the criminal trial of Aaron Burr on charges of treason to modern-day litigation involving the CIA, the state secrets privilege presents a thorny issue for federal judges. Judge Trenga examines the legal issues at the heart of this privilege—separation of powers, non-justiciability, evidentiary privilege, national security interests, and military secrets—and the two primary doctrinal tracks judges invoke. Then, based on interviews with thirty-one federal judges, Judge Trenga offers insights into how judges think about applying the state secrets privilege to sensitive material.

The Crisis In Scientific Publishing And Its Effect On The Admissibility Of Technical And Scientific Evidence, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 727 (2016), Kevin Hill

UIC Law Review

In 1993, the Supreme Court attempted to ensure the reliability of scientific, medical and technical evidence in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Court held that judges act as gate keepers to, and provided various criterion to guide judges in the admissibility of, technical and scientific evidence. This article examines one criterion, peer review publication, to determine whether changes in scientific publishing over the last twenty-three years have weakened peer review’s usefulness as a guide for judges. The author analyzes the decline of peer review, as a clear standard for measuring the reliability of articles, by examining four problems …

Recent Development: Peterson V. State: Limitations On Defense Cross-Examination Are Permitted When The Testimony Lacks A Factual Foundation, Is Overly Prejudicial, Or Has Not Been Adequately Preserved, Meghan E. Ellis

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland held that the defendant’s right to confrontation was not violated when the defense was precluded from cross-examining a witness about hallucinations and his potential sentence prior to entering into a plea agreement. Peterson v. State, 444 Md. 105, 153-54, 118 A.3d 925, 952-53 (2015). The court found that the defendant failed to preserve the issue of a witness’s expectation of benefit with respect to pending charges, and failed to show sufficient factual foundation for a cross-examination regarding the expectation. Id. at 138-39, 118 A.3d at 944. In addition, the court found that, although not …

Sleuthing Scientific Evidence Information On The Internet, Diana Botluk

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From Simple Statements To Heartbreaking Photographs And Videos: An Interdisciplinary Examination Of Victim Impact Evidence In Criminal Cases, Mitchell J. Frank

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Enforcing Compliance With Constitutionally-Required Disclosures: A Proposed Rule, Emmet G. Sullivan

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

To provide a striking example of the need for a federal disclosure rule, in Part I, I briefly summarize a report on the discovery abuses that occurred in the case of United States v. Theodore F. Stevens. In Part II, I describe efforts beginning in 2003 to amend Rule 16. In Part III, I provide an overview of the local district court disclosure rules and standing orders nationwide. Part III also provides the proposed rule now being considered for adoption by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

A Domestic Consequence Of The Government Spying On Its Citizens: The Guilty Go Free, Mystica M. Alexander, William P. Wiggins

Brooklyn Law Review

In recent years, a seemingly endless stream of headlines have alerted people to the steady and relentless government encroachment on their civil liberties. Consider, for example, headlines such as “U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate Americans,” “DEA Admits to Keeping Secret Database of Phone Calls,” or “No Morsel Too Miniscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.” Of concern is not only the U.S. government’s collection of data on its citizens, but also how that information is aggregated, stored, and used. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. While the drafters of the Fourth …

New Rules Of War In The Battle Of The Experts: Amending The Expert Witness Disqualification Test For Conflicts Of Interest, Nina A. Vershuta

Brooklyn Law Review

In civil litigation, the big business of retaining experts has raised concerns about the integrity of the adversarial process and undermined the role that expert testimony plays at trial. Due to a rising demand for expert testimony, it is common for the same expert to testify for opposing clients. When a client hires an expert who has been previously retained by that client’s adversary, a conflict of interest arises. Such experts may share confidential information with their new client to the detriment of the former client—triggering the expert disqualification test for conflicts of interest. Most state and federal courts do …

Policing In The Era Of Permissiveness: Mitigating Misconduct Through Third-Party Standing, Julian A. Cook Iii

Brooklyn Law Review

On April 4, 2015, Walter L. Scott was driving his vehicle when he was stopped by Officer Michael T. Slager of the North Charleston, South Carolina, police department for a broken taillight. A dash cam video from the officer’s vehicle showed the two men engaged in what appeared to be a rather routine verbal exchange. Sometime after Slager returned to his vehicle, Scott exited his car and ran away from Slager, prompting the officer to pursue him on foot. After he caught up with Scott in a grassy field near a muffler establishment, a scuffle between the men ensued, purportedly …