Excited Utterance

Guiding Jurors on Damage Award Decisions. Valerie Hans from Cornell Law School discusses her recent psychological research on how the legal system might provide guidance to jurors assessing pain and suffering damages.

Cognitive Bias in Forensic Pathology Decisions. Itiel Dror from University College London shows that medical examiner decisions can be influenced by the non-medical information to which the experts are exposed, and argues for restrictions on the ways in which medical examiners use such information.

Fourteenth Amendment Confrontation. Evan Bernick from Northern Illinois University challenges the originalist arguments made by the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Washington and argues that an originalist perspective on the clause must take into account understandings of Confrontation at the time of the Reconstruction amendments.

Why Do We Admit Criminal Confessions into Evidence? David Crump from the University of Houston discusses the challenging issue of confessions and their place in evidence law.

Time to Abandon the Testimonial Oath. Ian Gallacher from Syracuse University takes a critical look at the familiar ritual of oathtaking and suggests that perhaps it is time to modernize the practice.

Meta-Evidence and Preliminary Injunctions. Maggie Wittlin from Fordham University discusses the applicability of the rules of evidence to preliminary injunction hearings and how the concept of "meta-evidence" might help us think about the kinds of evidence offered at pre-trial hearings more generally.

The Limits of Legitimate Contextual Interpretation in the Age of Statutes. Ed Imwinkelried from UC Davis School of Law  discusses the intersection of evidence law and interpretative methods as he argues in favor of a “moderate textualist” reading of the Federal Rules.

Autopsy of a Crime Lab. Brandon Garrett from Duke University discusses his new book, Autopsy of a Crime Lab, which reviews the problems in forensic science and attempts to carve a path forward for forensic science reform.

Confrontation in the Age of Plea Bargaining. Will Ortman from Wayne State University argues for a modern interpretation of the Confrontation Clause that would give defendants a right to criminal depositions and that would in turn promote more informed and accurate plea bargaining.

The Content of Our Characters. Teneille Brown from the University of Utah reformulates the character evidence rules in light of existing psychological and neuroscience research.