CRJU 20413 Chapter 8: Chapter 8 - Part 2
Document Summary
Rules of evidence are the court rules that govern the admissibility of evidence at criminal hearings and trials. They are particularly based on traditions, but all u. s. jurisdictions have formalized rules of evidence in written form. Trials are also circumscribed by informal rules and professional expectation. The term factual guilt refers to the issues of whether the defendant is actually responsible for the crime of which he or she stands accused. If the defendant did it, then he or she is, in fact, guilty. The adversarial system is the two-sided structure under which american criminal trial courts operate that pits the prosecution against the defense. In theory, justice is done when the more effective adversary is able to convince the judge or jury that his or her perspective on the case is the correct one. The stages in a criminal trial: trial initiation, jury selection, opening statements, presentation of evidence, closing arguments, judge"s charge to the jur(cid:455, jury deliberations, verdict.
