What are the principal methods used at trial to test the testimony of witnesses? How does allowing hearsay interfere with those methods?
What will be an ideal response?
The principal means courts use to guard against these risks are the requirements that the witness testify under oath, which helps ensure sincerity, and that the witness be available for cross-examination, which can be used to test recollection, narration, and perception. These risks can be tested by cross-examination, where the witness is available to explain his perceptions or demonstrate the clarity of his memory. Questions about the witness' eyesight, the time of day or night, his distance from the defendant, and so forth can test the accuracy of his perceptions. Similar questions can assess his memory and narration of the event. The U.S. Supreme Court has observed that the rule against hearsay is closely related to the constitutional right of confrontation, as both "stem from the same roots" and that "... hearsay rules and the Confrontation Clause are generally designed to protect similar values.
You might also like to view...
The traditional approach to adjudication is concerned with the outcomes thataccompany criminal convictions
a. True b. False
Summarize the three federal laws that have been particularly influential on our nation's counterterrorism strategies.
What will be an ideal response?
Crowding in workhouses was a major impetus for the development of transportation as a punishment.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
List the reasons why private prisons can be run more cheaply than public prisons in the American correctional system
What will be an ideal response?