Truth, Error, and Criminal Law: An Essay in Legal Epistemology

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 11
Preface......Page 13
Abbreviations and Acronyms Used......Page 17
A Road Map......Page 19
A Book as Thought Experiment......Page 22
Principal Types of Error......Page 27
Other Relevant Distinctions among Error Types......Page 31
Relevance versus Admissibility......Page 35
The Case of “Unfairly Prejudicial” Evidence......Page 37
part i THE DISTRIBUTION OF ERROR......Page 45
Updating the Road Map......Page 47
Introduction......Page 48
Origins......Page 50
The Current State of Play......Page 52
1. BARD as That Security of Belief Appropriate to Important
Decisions in One’s Life......Page 54
2. BARD as the Sort of Doubt That Would Make a Prudent Person Hesitate to Act......Page 55
3. BARD as an Abiding Conviction of Guilt......Page 56
4. Reasonable Doubt as a Doubt for Which a Reason Could Be Given......Page 58
5. BARD as High Probability......Page 62
The Ultimate Act of Desperation: Avoiding Clarification......Page 65
Taking a Step Back from the Abyss......Page 69
Would an Improved BARD Suffice?......Page 72
The Chilling Effect of Death Penalty Jurisprudence on a Candid Discussion of the Standard of Proof......Page 75
Conclusion......Page 79
3 Fixing the Standard of Proof......Page 81
The BoD and the SoP......Page 82
n, the SoP, and the BoD......Page 84
The Relative Costs of False Acquittals and False Convictions......Page 87
A Fresh Start at Setting the SoP......Page 92
Replacing a Subjective Standard with an Objective One:
The Real Reform......Page 94
Problems with Estimating the Probabilities of One’s Beliefs......Page 95
The Subjectivity Question......Page 97
The Core Reform: An Objective Standard......Page 99
Multiple Standards?......Page 104
Conclusion......Page 105
4 Innocence, the Burden of Proof, and the Puzzle of Affirmative Defenses......Page 107
The Presumption of Innocence: Material or Probatory?......Page 108
When and to Whom Does the PI Apply?......Page 111
Kinds of Innocence and Guilt......Page 114
The Core Failing: Confusing Juror Confidence with a Standard of Proof......Page 124
The Burden of Proof......Page 127
The Puzzling Case of Affirmative Defenses......Page 128
part ii FLAWED RULES OF EVIDENCE AND PROCEDURE......Page 133
5 Evaluating Evidence and Procedures......Page 135
A Meta-Rule for Evaluating Evidence......Page 136
Reining In Distributionist Excesses......Page 142
Some Rules of Evidence That Offend against the Antidistributionist Policy......Page 154
Assessing Procedures......Page 159
Conclusion......Page 162
Silence and Truth Seeking......Page 165
The Accused......Page 166
The Privileged Witness......Page 167
Silent Defendants: The Problem......Page 168
The Shaky Epistemology of Lobotomized Jurors......Page 173
Silent Witness......Page 180
Privileged Testimony......Page 182
Conclusion......Page 187
The Tortured Logic of the Admission of Confessions......Page 189
The Triple Test......Page 190
Voluntariness......Page 191
Illegally Obtained Confessions......Page 195
Corroboration......Page 196
Poison Fruit......Page 200
The Exclusion of Nonconfessional Evidence......Page 203
The Core Problem......Page 212
Appeals of Acquittals: A No-Brainer......Page 217
Self-Correction and Learning from Our Mistakes......Page 224
Error Correction versus “Error” Correction......Page 228
Conclusion......Page 229
9
Dubious Motives for Flawed Rules:
The Clash between Values......Page 231
Alleged Jury Incompetence and the Rules of Evidence and Procedure......Page 232
Safeguarding the Rights of Defendants......Page 236
Policing the Police......Page 242
Safeguarding the Moral Integrity of the Courts......Page 244
Conclusion......Page 248
Index......Page 253