Using Popular Culture to Demonstrate the Rules of Evidence

 

Martin A. Schwartz, Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has published Trial Evidence Brought to Life: Illustrations from Famous Trials, Film and Fiction (2015 Edition)(Practising Law Institute, 2015). Here is the abstract.

This book is a guide to the law of evidence that utilizes evidentiary examples from popular culture to provide a strong understanding of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and its interpretive case law. It also provides an understanding of how popular culture sources inform jurors’ preconceptions about the trial process. Illustrations from famous cases, movies, novels, cartoons, and other media highlight the presumptions jurors bring to the courtroom. Issues covered include: relevance; unfair prejudice; the rule against hearsay and its exceptions; recent developments in the Confrontation Clause; expert testimony; differences between expert witness and lay witness testimony; impeachment methods; procedures for juror questioning of witnesses; admissibility of videotape evidence; and requirements for introducing electronic evidence.