CRIM 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Eyewitness Identification, Mental Disorder, Exclusionary Rule
8 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Crim330 week 13: opinion & expert evidence. Witnesses should testify only to facts within their knowledge. Cause of failure in a vehicle/other device. Degree of similarity of handwriting, music scores, book texts. Whether a particular disorder is a disease of the mind . How poor we are at eyewitness identification. 4 criteria govern admissibility of expert testimony: relevance, necessity, absence of an exclusionary rule. Providing info likely to be outside the experience and knowledge of a judge/jury. Carries a risk that jury/judge will accept it too readily. Evidence must be related to a fact in issue as to have tendency to help resolve that issue. Ct must engage in cost-benefit analysis before admitting evidence. Influenced by: daubert v. merrel dow pharmaceutical. Risk of uncritical acceptance by the jury. There must be a risk the jury will come to a diff conclusion: properly qualified expert. Requires compliance with other rules of evidence. Eg. cannot be evidence of bad character.
