evidence outline

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1、JulieSalamon06/21/21JulieSalamonEvidenceProfessorEleanorSwiftSpring1999vRelevancevRule401–Relevance.Evidenceisrelevantifithas“anytendencytomaketheexistenceofamaterialfactmoreorlessprobablethanitwouldbewithouttheevidenceØHowtodetermineifevidenceisrelevant:§Istheeviden

2、ceofferedtoprovea“factofconsequence”tothecase?·AFOCisafactthatmatterstothelegalresolutionofthedispute,afactthatcanbeconnectedthroughinferentialreasoning,tooneoftheessentialelementsofthechargeinthecase.(a.k.a.“materialfact”)¨Notethattheinferentialreasoningismadeupofre

3、asonablegeneralizationsbaseduponcommonsenseandexperience.§Doestheevidencemakethatfactmoreorlessprobable?·Notethatthisisaverylowthreshold.Theevidencemustmerelyincreasetheprobabilitythatthematerialfactisso.Doesn’thavetomakethefactmoreprobablethannot.·Thesizeofthechange

4、ofprobabilitydoesn’tmatter.OnlythatthefactdoeschangetheprobabilityofaFOC¨Standardissolowbecausewewantjuries,notjudges,evaluatingasmuchevidenceaspossible.Solowrelevancystandardpromotesrationaldecisionmakingbypromotingthejury’saccesstorelevantevidence.JulieSalamon06/21

5、/21§Evidencethatwouldn’tberelevant·GeneralizationsthatlinkFOCandEEknowntobefalse.·GeneralizationsthatlinkFOCandEEarepurelyspeculative.¨Evenifjudgehasdoubtsaboutthevalidityofageneralization,shewillprobablyconsidertheevidencerelevant,sinceFRE401saysthatifevidencehas“an

6、ytendency”tomakeFOCmoreorlessprobable,it’srelevant.JulieSalamon06/21/21ØRule402–Onlyrelevantevidencemaybeadmitted.§Notethatthisisonlythefirststepindeterminingadmissibility,notaguaranteeofadmissibility.ØConditionalRelevancy§Ifthejudgedoubtsthevalidityofageneralization

7、necessarytomakeevidencerelevant,shecanrequireproponenttoproduceevidentiarysupportforthegeneralizationitself.§Ifjudgedecidestorequirethis,thegeneralizationissubjecttoFRE104(b)standard,andbecomesa“conditionoffact”.ØResGestaeEvidence§Judgewillusuallyadmitbackgroundtesti

8、monythatisnotrelatedtoaFOC,butthatgivesthejuryabroadercontexttoanincident.§FRE401explicitlyapprovesofadmissionofcontextualevidence.