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Essay on Laws of Evidence

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Memorandum
To:
From:
Date: 08/31/2012
Re: Laws of Evidence Assignment #2
Statement of Assignment
You have asked me to analyze and determine whether the evidence that prosecution would like to introduce at trial can be admitted based on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Pursuant to your request, this memo includes my analysis, reasoning, and conclusions regarding the admissibility of such evidence.
Statement of Facts
The defendant was prosecuted for the murder of his wife. The victim’s body was never recovered, no murder weapon was ever found, and there were no witnesses to the crime. At trial, prosecution would like to introduce the following as evidence: 1. A computer disk, found in the defendant’s desk, that contains a …show more content…

See Fed. R. Evid. 403(2011). In order for it to meet the requirements to be excluded, the danger of unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, the jury being misled, undue delay, time being wasted, or unnecessary presentation of cumulative evidence has to greatly outweigh the probative value of the evidence. If harm that is not related to the legal issue of the case will be done to a party by the introduction of the evidence, then the evidence prejudicial. A fact often possesses both probative and prejudicial effects, in which case it is then left up to the court to determine if the prejudicial effects outweigh the probative value enough to exclude the evidence, or if the probative value of the evidence outweighs the prejudicial effects enough to deem the evidence as admissible. Prejudicial evidence tends to discredit the accused and make the jury dislike him/her more, and offers little or no insight to the matter of the case or assistance in the search for the truth.

ANALYSIS ISSUE I

Is the computer disk that was found in the defendant’s desk containing a file named “murder” which appears to be a twenty six step guide on how to carry out a murder admissible evidence in this case? Although this evidence does not necessarily prove that the defendant is guilty of murdering his wife, it does have the tendency to prove that the defendant was interested in gaining the knowledge of how to carry out a

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