In the past, I’ve written about so-called “propensity” evidence—evidence that tends to show that, because a criminal defendant did some unrelated/uncharged bad thing, he must have committed the charged crime. ...
In many criminal trials, defendants don’t put on an affirmative case. In other words, they don’t call their own witnesses or offer their own exhibits. But, in two recent federal district court ...
In federal criminal cases, the government can’t offer so-called “propensity” evidence—evidence that tends to show that, because the defendant also did some unrelated bad thing, he must have committed the ...
In many cases, a party needs to offer expert testimony to prove its case. Before such testimony can be presented to a jury, however, it must get past the “gatekeeper”: the judge. But ...
Eighth Circuit Case: United States v. Conner, No. 18-1032, 2019 WL 2039858, at *2 (8th Cir. May 9, 2019) Type of Case: Criminal Charges/Counts: 18 U.S.C. § 1951 (Hobbs Act robbery); 18 U.S.C. ...
When can a court treat the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission as the same “party” for purposes of a particular hearsay exception? This question was recently examined ...
Third Circuit Case: United States v. Greenspan, No. 17-2458, 2019 WL 1984187, at *8 (3d Cir. Apr. 17, 2019) Type of Case: Criminal Charges/Counts: 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(b)(1)(A); 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(1), ...
In a white collar case, the government must typically prove that the defendant had a “criminal” state of mind (i.e., that the defendant knew that what he was doing was illegal). Consequently, a ...
