Welcome

Criminal Evidence is a respected and trusted introduction to the rules of criminal evidence for criminal justice students and professionals. The first half of this book follows the Federal Rules of Evidence in its explanation of how evidence is collected, preserved, and presented in criminal court. The second half provides a selection of relevant criminal court cases that reinforce these basics and contextualize how these rules are currently practiced. This text offers readers a practical understanding of how concepts of evidence operate to convict the guilty and acquit the innocent.

Student aids include chapter outlines, key terms and concepts lists, a table of cases cited, and online case study questions and glossary. Teacher resources include Instructor’s Guide, test bank, and PowerPoint slides. See the menu at top left.

Online Resources

Many of the materials cited in footnotes are available, free of charge, from the following sources:

Supreme Court

http://www.supremecourt.gov

The Supreme Court’s official website contains an automated docket system of cases now pending before the Court, including the briefs filed in these cases, slip opinions of cases recently decided, and bound volumes of cases decided since 2007.

Findlaw

http://www.findlaw.com/

This website contains all Supreme Court decisions since 1893, all federal statutes, more recent lower federal court decisions, and select state materials, plus additional legal resources, such as the Supreme Court’s current docket, briefs, and transcripts of oral arguments. For cases decided since September 2000, Findlaw offers a choice between the full text or an opinion summary, plus access to other secondary materials. CAVEAT: The website at http://www.findlaw.com may not be accessed using Internet Explorer. It may be necessary to type this address into another search engine.

Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com/

Google Scholar is an excellent resource for in-depth research. Researchers can access the full text of Supreme Court cases by typing in the case name and checking the box entitled “articles.” One can gain access to numerous law review articles and find references to other online repositories, universities, and websites that contain relevant information. A free Gmail account is needed to use this resource.

American Bar Association

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/preview_home.html

This site contains summaries of the facts and issues presented in cases currently before the Supreme Court, along with the briefs filed in these cases.

Historical Documents

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference-Shelf/Documents.shtml

This site contains the full text of the Constitution and other historically significant documents like the Declaration of Independence (1776), Articles of Confederation (1777), Federalist Papers (1787–1788), Bill of Rights (1791), Gettysburg Address (1863), and Emancipation Proclamation (1863).