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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page research paper/essay that examines the rules of evidence in US courts. The writer addresses specifically rules of evidence that pertain to the character of the accused. Relevant law and its ramifications are discussed. Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khchevi.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the other hand, in many cases, the prosecution is prohibited by the court from establishing the converse, i.e. that a defendant has in the past had a bad reputation, so
that the alleged crime would not be out of character. This has been particularly offensive when the accused was released and immediately committed a similar offense, often of a sexual
nature. In discussing this disparity, the student researching this paper should, first of all, understand the orientation of American jurisprudence. From the inception of this country, American law
has been predicated on the premise that a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. There is a well known story, which may be apocryphal, that Thomas Jefferson said that he
would rather ten guilty men go free, then one innocent man be falsely accused. Therefore, the rules of court evidence are still structured so that, while their primary purpose is
to indicate the guilt of the defendant, they also are designed to protect the rights of the accused. Before discussing further whether or not detrimental character evidence
should be admitted in US courts, the student should first become aware of what, precisely, is the law regarding evidence of this nature. Swift (2000) states that James Bradley Thayer
is largely responsible for the direction that evidence law reform has taken over the last one hundred years. To Thayer and his contemporaries, extending the judges discretion to either
admit or exclude evidence meant freeing this decision from the burden of the common law system of appellate court precedent, which controlled through detailed rules of law, the outcomes in
a large number of cases (Swift, 2000). Thayer advocated that evidence law should consist of principles, rather then detailed rules, so that judge could have more discretion over what
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