Evidence
I. General principles of FRE
A. Reasons for FRE
1. trials have to end
2. constitutional limitations on evidence
3. privacy in certain communications (privileges)
B. Goal: achieving the right result
1. certain evidence will distract jury from search for truth and produce wrong results
C. Sources of inconsistency in rules
1. only trust juries on certain issues
2. various public policy goals
3. compromise
D. 3 categories
1. relevance: focus parties & jury on issues at hand
2. reliability: ensure that the evidence is as good as it purports to be or its defects are known
3. privileges: excludes evidence that is relevant and reliable for other policy reasons
E. Steps in statutory interpretation
1. language of rule
2. legislative history of rule
a. may override plain meaning of rule
3. common/case law
4. policy
II. Evidentiary Concerns
A. Rule 606b
B. Tanner v. U.S.
1. Holding: After a verdict in a criminal case, a court is not required to consider evidence of juror intoxication in a motion for a new trial
2. Rationale: Juror testimony may not be admitted to impeach a jury verdict unless the testimony concerns some extraneous influence, such as a bribe (not alcohol).
a. Matters of mental/physical incompetence have always been treated as external
3. Common Law Rule codified in FRE 606
4. Legislative History of FRE 606: rejected allowing juror testimony to be considered
III. Miscellaneous Rules
A. FRE 102
1. purpose of rules: secure fairness
B. FRE 103
1. 103(a)(2)
· once there is a definitive ruling, party doesn’t have to reobject @ trial to preserve for appeal
· must ask if it is a definitive ruling
on at hand
· evidence may still be relevant, even if its used for an undisputed fact
· would exclude not under relevance but under 403 for waste of time and little probative value
v. evidence may be irrelevant for 1 purpose and relevant for another
vi. relevance isn’t inherent characteristic of any item of evidence but is a relation between the evidence and a proposition sought to be proved
· if evidence tends to prove/disprove any proposition it is relevant to that proposition
· if proposition is link of chain of proof or is provable in case then evidence is probative
b. Probativeness
i. probative: evidence must have a tendency to make the existence of a fact more probable or less probable than it would w/out the evidence
· evidence doesn’t have to be conclusive
ii. Problem 1.1
