Criminal Evidence: An Introduction

Criminal Evidence: An Introduction is comprehensive in its treatment of criminal evidence law-covering all necessary areas, such as the forms of evidence, the hearsay rule and its exceptions, examination of witnesses, testimonial privileges, and the concepts of relevancy and materiality. The text also features criminal procedure material, including the exclusionary rule, searches and seizures, interrogations, and pretrial identification procedures. In addition, the book covers the development of evidence law as common law, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and current "hot button" topics in criminal evidence such as D.N.A. evidence. The text's comprehensive approach allows instructors to cover all of the "standard" material, while also adding selections that they consider most interesting and relevant to their particular courses. This textbook is intended for use in either a criminal evidence or criminal procedure class. The first five chapters cover preliminary matters in evidence law. This paves the way for a discussion of criminal procedure. Before students can fully understand the nuances of criminal evidence, they need to understand the basics of criminal procedure. It is the law of criminal procedure that governs the handling of evidence before it is introduced in court.