Impeaching Without Imperiling: The Effect of Alternate Methods for Strategies for Cross-Examining Character Evidence

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Character Evidence

Character Evidence

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Saks ◽  
Barbara A. Spellman
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Basic Rule ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Witness Credibility ◽  
Judicial Instructions ◽  
Character Evidence ◽  
Evidence Rules ◽  
Special Rule ◽  
Sexual Conduct

The basic rule limiting character evidence is quite sensible. Personality traits predict less than most people (including jurors) realize; situations, and person-by-situation interactions, are more potent forces. As the law suspects, people tend to perceive the behavior of others through lenses of propensity; consequently, they over-attribute and over-predict consistency between character and conduct. In fashioning the character evidence rules, common law judges correctly diagnosed a problem and took steps to temper those attributional tendencies to avoid inaccurate and unfair verdicts. The rules allow numerous exceptions, admitting some character evidence out of fairness or to permit helpful evidence while barring its most misleading variants. For example, defendants in criminal cases are permitted to offer evidence of their own character or the character of a victim. Other exceptions are made to assist factfinders to evaluate witness credibility. A special class of that rule deals with witnesses’ criminal records: a maze of sub-rules governs admissibility of prior crimes. Research finds that people tend to rely on prior crime evidence for its improper propensity purpose, contrary to judicial instructions about the limited use to which it may be put. A relatively new set of rules permits prior criminal sexual conduct to be admitted, allowing factfinders to draw inferences about “any matter to which it is relevant.” These rules are controversial because they invite jurors to engage in the very propensity thinking that centuries of evidence doctrine prohibited. Moreover, behavioral data do not support the theory behind a special rule for prior criminal sexual conduct.

Character Evidence

2018 ◽  
pp. 284-342
Author(s):  
Jonathan Doak ◽  
Claire McGourlay ◽  
Mark Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Character Evidence

19. Character Evidence and the Accused as a Witness at Trial

2021 ◽  
pp. 361-387
Author(s):  
Martin Hannibal ◽  
Lisa Mountford
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Character Evidence

This chapter examines the evidential rules that apply to the defendant at trial. These include the defendant’s competence and compellability; the course of the defendant’s evidence; drawing an adverse inference under s. 35 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 from the defendant’s silence at trial; the admissibility of a defendant’s past bad character; admissibility of defendant’s good character; and arguments for and against the defendant giving evidence.

5. Character evidence

2015 ◽  
pp. 74-100
Author(s):  
Maureen Spencer ◽  
John Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Character Evidence
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