EVIDENCE OUTLINE - NYU School of Law：证据概述-哥伦比亚大学法学院.doc

EVIDENCE OUTLINE Prof. Stephen Gillers Fall 2006 1 ? INTRODUCTION Trial Context types of evidence at trial witnesses real evidence – something tangible related to the case demonstrative evidence – not part of the story, but lawyer wishes to show the jury something to demonstrate something about the case (e.g., experiment; picture of intersection) competing stories at trial – two ways stories can compete factual differences differences in inferences drawn from the same facts Policy Overview [values that the evidence rules protect] accuracy rationality – does evidence have a rational relationship to the case? reliability – is the evidence credible? efficiency – see FRE 403 fairness – rules should be party-neutral but note: some rules exclude evidence to one party’s advantage (e.g., evidence that Δ fixed the steps after the accident excluded, b/c we want to encourage Δs to make steps safer) (e.g., Confrontation Clause, guarantees rt of accused in a criminal trial to confront witnesses brought against him) danger of misuse of information one solution: limiting instructions but sometimes we’re so skeptical of jury’s willingness/ability to follow limiting instructions, and the potential harm from the evidence is so grave as to outweigh the modest benefits, so we exclude the evidence protecting rt to jury trial part of the 6th A rt to a jury trial is the rt to an effective jury – jury must be able to do more than just what the judge says; so judge must protect jury prerogative to view evidence and draw conclusions 2 ? RELEVANCE Logical Relevance as defined in the Rules FRE 401 – relevant evidence is evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence “any tendency” – sets a very low bar “of consequence to the determination of the action” – incorporates the major premise, relational aspect of relevance elements of action lay out the g