Category: Federal Evidence

When Can a Lay Witness Give Opinion Testimony in Federal Court?

Federal criminal trials frequently involve witnesses who want to do more than simply tell the jury what they saw or heard. They also want to offer an opinion about what the evidence means.

Federal prosecutors often attempt to introduce a defendant’s prior conviction or alleged misconduct to influence how the jury views the current charge. Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) limits this tactic. The government cannot use prior acts merely to suggest that the defendant has a criminal character and that the defendant probably committed...

Eyewitness testimony can be powerful evidence in a criminal trial. But a confident identification is not necessarily an accurate identification.

Criminal defense attorney Michael J. Petro successfully defended a Chicago man who faced a potential prison sentence of 6 to 30 years after two Chicago police officers identified him...

Few forms of evidence can be more persuasive to a jury than an eyewitness who points to the defendant and says:

“That's the person I saw commit the crime.”

But decades of scientific research have demonstrated that eyewitness memory is not a video recording. Memory can...

Federal prosecutors frequently introduce statements made outside the courtroom by alleged members of a conspiracy. These statements may include recorded calls, text messages, emails, testimony from informants, and conversations repeated by cooperating witnesses.

The government cannot admit a statement merely by labeling the speaker a coconspirator. It must establish...