Articles Posted in Evidence

Federal Evidence Review has this list of issues they see as important in the coming year. Note item 2 was decided by the Supremes 9 January, with a ruling that the accused bears the burden to establish withdrawal from conspiracy.

Similar to its federal counterpart, Minnesota Rule of Evidence 803(6) provides an exception to the rule against hearsay for A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person…

As noted in yesterday’s post, Federal Rule of Evidence 414(a), In a criminal case in which a defendant is accused of child molestation, the court may admit evidence that the defendant committed any other child molestation. The evidence may be considered on any matter to which it is relevant. So,…

Slate has a piece, The Catch-22 of Eyewitness ID, Juries trust the memory of witnesses even when they shouldn’t. h/t How Appealing.

I’ve posted already about the Oregon case – Oregon v. Lawson. Here is a piece from the excellent Concurring Opinions blog about eyewitness testimony. I would like to underscore Brandon’s point about reform efforts that are currently underway. While for the most part, the criminal justice process is stuck in…

Prof. Berman notes a unique “stale” murder/rape case in Illinois. Speaking of the Supreme Court, two recent rulings by the Justices, Gall and Pepper, made much of considering under federal sentencing law the positive post-offense behavior by a defendant. In this case, it seems the defendant was a model citizen…

I have mentioned this article before, Michael D. Risinger, Navigating Expert Reliability:  Are Criminal Standards of Certainty Being Left in the Dock?, 64 ALBANY L. REV. 99 (2000).  The basic theme: This article shows that, as to proffers of asserted expert testimony, civil defendants win their Daubert reliability challenges to…

Many years ago we sought to improve our counsel performance at NLSO Norfolk with developing checklists, protocols, and a PQS system.  It seemed to work. Now here is an article, Darryl K. Brown, Defense Counsel, Trial Judges, and Evidence Protocols, Brown, Darryl K., Defense Counsel, Trial Judges, and Evidence Protocols,…

Federal evidence review brings us information about a proposed change to Fed. R. Evid. 803(10), which by operation of Mil. R. Evid. 1102, will become “law” for courts-martial absent Presidential action (18 months after the effective date of any FRE amendment).  This is an occasional issue in fraud and some…

Here is a link to a useful site all about DNA. And here is a link to the NIJ forensics site.