Purpose
In the United States, character evidence may be offered at trial to
- 1. prove character, if character is a substantive issue in the litigation
- admissibility of character evidence to prove character is not affected by the case's civil or criminal nature
- admissibility of character evidence to prove character is not affected by the case's civil or criminal nature
- 2. prove, through circumstantial evidence, an aspect of an individual's conduct
- character evidence's admissibility as circumstantial evidence is influenced by the case's civil or criminal nature
- character evidence's admissibility as circumstantial evidence is influenced by the case's civil or criminal nature
- 3. impeach or strengthen the credibility of a witness
Character may be a substantive issue in defamation suits, in lawsuits alleging negligent hiring or negligent entrustment, in child custody cases, as well as in loss of consortium cases; character evidence is thus admissible to prove the substantive issues that arise in these types of lawsuits.
If used as circumstantial evidence, FRE 404(a)(1) renders inadmissible character evidence offered to prove that an individual acted "in accordance with" a character or trait "on a particular occasion." It lists several exceptions which apply depending on whether the proceeding is civil or criminal, whether the defense or prosecution is offering the character evidence, and what purpose it is being offered for.
Read more about this topic: Character Evidence
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“Certain books seem to have been written not for the purpose that we learn something from them but that we know that the author was a knowledgeable person.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“No further evidence is needed to show that “mental illness” is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.... A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice—is often the means of their regeneration.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)