CM LAW Flashcards
Direct Evidence
Evidence based on personal knowledge or observations.
Direct Evidence, if true, proves a fact without the need for
inferences or presumptions.
Circumstantial
Evidence based on inference and not on personal knowledge or
observation.
Physical
Tangible, capable of being perceived especially by sense of touch) and
may be direct or circumstantial.
Objects
Property
Items seized.
Testimonial
Includes statements made by victims, witnesses, suspects, or police.
Statements that consist of personal observations/knowledge
(which be direct evidence) or may involve the communication of
information from which one may infer (conclude) facts (which
would be circumstantial evidence).
Relevance
For evidence to be admissible in court it must be relevant.
o Evidence that has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable that
it would be without the evidence.
o The fact is of consequence is determining the action.
Reliability
The value of physical evidence is directly related to a reliable chain of custody.
o Physical evidence that has been pampered with is not reliable.
o Evidence that is presented in court must substantially be in the same
condition as when it was originally seized by the police.
Chain of Custody
The meticulous and chronological documentation from the moment it is
seized to its presentation in court.
Accident
An unexpected happening that occurs without intention or design on
the suspect’s part.
Knowingly
The suspect engaged in prohibited conduct with the knowledge that the
social harm that the law was designed to prevent was practically certain
to result; deliberately.
Malice
State of mind of cruelty, hostility or revenge
Negligent
The failure to use the degree of care which a reasonable prudent person
would use under the circumstances, either by doing something that a
reasonable person would not do, or by failing to do something that a
reasonable prudent person would do under similar circumstances.
Reckless
A person is reckless if they knew or should have known, that such
actions were highly likely to cause substantial harm to someone but ran
the risk and went ahead anyway.
Wanton
Conduct in wanton if the actor knew it would create a risk of
substantial damage or destruction to another’s property, or a
reasonable person, knowing what the actor knew, would have realized
the act posed a risk of substantial damage to or destruction of another
property.
Willful
o Voluntary and intentional, but necessarily malicious.
A voluntary act becomes willful, in law, only when it involves
conscious wrong or evil purpose on the part of the actor, or at
least inexcusable carelessness, whether the act is right or wrong.
Felony
Any crime punishable by imprisonment in a state prison or death