EVIDENCE OUTLINE- Fall 2017-Vandercoy
Federal Rules of Evidence-
Congress enacted the FRE; the FRE are treated as statutes
At least 40 jurisdictions have adopted rules of evidence based on them
Missouri has not adopted any rules of evidence—MO is a common law state as far as the rules of evidence go
Interpretation
If the statutory meaning is clear, you don’t look behind it
The common law is different; when the rules are laid out in cases, you can always argue that case is different from our case
Advisory Committee Notes
These are notes by the committee that drafted the FRE
These comments tell you what the committee had in mind when formulating each rule
For statutory arguments, these can be persuasive
Four ways that evidence can be used to establish a proposition
Testimony by witnesses
Real evidence- documents or physical items
Stipulation by the parties
Judicial notice
(This course—main focus is testimony and real evidence)
Evidence issues have to be won at trial!!!!
There are not very many errors by the judge in the admission of evidence that will allow for an appeal.
For this reason, the cases found in an Evidence casebook are misleading.
Have to remember this when looking at them.
Motions in Limine
Motion made before trial
Method of trying to get a ruling on the admissibility of evidence before trial to prevent such evidence from not being used
What is accomplished by this
Jury will not hear the question and the objection
Some questions of evidence are quite complex and if the question of admissibility arises during the trial, the judge will have to make a decision quickly—these motions allow the judge to make a more careful decision about the admission of the evidence
Is there any advantage to making this motion even when the judges makes the decision not to rule on the motion?
Even if the judge doesn’t rule, the judge will still know that there is an issue about the evidence and he/she will think about that evidence
Suppose the judge denies the motion and admits the evidence
Must the party still object at trial when the issue comes up to preserve their rights to appeal? The party should still object at trial to preserve the appeal even if it’s not necessary
FRE 103(a)- Provides that once a judge has ruled that the party does not have to object when the issue comes at trial; probably still a good practice to object
Relevancy and Related Problems
Relevancy
Relevancy is a basic concept in the law of evidence.
The most difficult aspect is when you have evidence that is relevant for more than one purpose.
For one purpose the
eople v. Adamson (page 6)—Without the evidence that the killer took the stocking top from the scene of the crime, the evidence of the stocking tops would not be relevant.
Evidence such as the stocking tops can then be used to show that the defendant and the killer have common characteristics. Because of their link with the stocking tops, you can say this. Of course, this is not the only possible inference.
FRE 402- Relevant Evidence Generally Admissible; Irrelevant Evidence Inadmissible- Relevant evidence is admissible unless there is a good reason for excluding it.
Relevancy Problems
Circumstantial Evidence- In general, you will only get relevancy problems as to circumstantial evidence since circumstantial evidence requires the making of inferences. Circumstantial evidence is never conclusive, there are always other explanations.
Other Problems
Evidence has little probative value.
Evidence is ambiguous.
The jury may not be able to fully evaluate the evidence.
