ABA Journal

Evidence

3527 ABA Journal Evidence articles.

Jurors award $5M to writer who sued Trump for alleged assault; what evidence supported her allegations?

Jurors in a civil lawsuit filed against former President Donald Trump have found he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll and he is liable for $5 million in damages.

Supreme Court stays execution of inmate who won support from Oklahoma AG

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday stayed the execution of an Oklahoma inmate after the state attorney general said he supported vacating the conviction.

Judicial committee advances proposal to regulate the use of visual aids at federal trials

A proposed rule that would regulate the use of visual aids during federal trials has won approval from the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules.

Texas death row inmate can pursue challenge to DNA testing procedure, Supreme Court rules

A Texas death row inmate didn’t wait too long to challenge the state law governing postconviction DNA testing, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 decision.

Federal judge’s ‘rubberstamp’ orders repeat strings of citations with no specifics, 9th Circuit dissenter says

A defendant should get a new chance to argue that his confession was coerced after the trial judge failed to discuss specifics in a “boilerplate order” that adopted a magistrate judge’s report, according to a federal appeals judge’s partial dissent.

Taking Sides

Parental alienation happens when one parent engages in behaviors that cause a child to reject the other parent for no legitimate reason. It can become the subject of fierce debate in high-conflict divorce cases when one parent claims the other parent intentionally turned a child against him or her.

Trump motion seeks to block evidence from Georgia special purpose grand jury, disqualify district attorney

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump filed a motion Monday arguing that a special purpose grand jury investigating possible election interference in Georgia was created under statutes that are unconstitutionally vague, inviting “arbitrary, amorphous enforcement.”

Daughter sues agency after DNA test IDs likely suspect in institutionalized mother’s rape

A woman who used AncestryDNA to find the man who likely raped her developmentally disabled mother in an institution has sued the New York agency that employed him as a caretaker.

Weekly Briefs: SCOTUS nixes immigration arguments; decapitation defendant attacks her lawyer

SCOTUS drops arguments in immigration case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday removed a case from its argument calendar in which 19 states sought to keep in place an immigrant…

Some witnesses testifying before election-interference grand jury may have perjured themselves, report says

A special grand jury investigating interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia concluded that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony, according to parts of its report released Thursday.

Federal judge rejects Trump’s quid-pro-quo DNA offer in suit by rape accuser

A federal judge in Manhattan, New York City, has ruled against former President Donald Trump after he belatedly offered to provide a DNA sample in a suit filed by a woman who accused him of sexual assault, in exchange for missing pages of a forensic analysis of the dress that his accuser says she wore on the day in question.

Lawyers for Trump and rape accuser square off over DNA offer

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and a woman who accused him of sexual assault are fighting over his offer to provide a DNA sample in exchange for missing pages of a forensic analysis of the dress that she claims to have worn on the day in question.

Freedom Fight: Working tirelessly to free her brother from prison inspired Janis Puracal’s Forensic Justice Project

Janis Puracal helps people who are trying to prove their innocence after a conviction. But she also works with clients pretrial to reveal any flawed or misleading forensic evidence to prevent a conviction in the first place.

Cellphone video places Murdaugh at murder scene, says prosecutor in once-prominent lawyer’s trial

A prosecutor described cellphone video and gun residue on a raincoat Wednesday to support his contention that once-prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.

Law firm’s more protective test for attorney-client privilege ‘is a big ask,’ Kagan says

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan told a lawyer representing a tax law firm Monday that his proposed expansive test for protecting documents under attorney-client privilege “is a big ask,” according to coverage of the oral arguments.

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