Evidence Role in the Criminal Justice System IntroductionEvidence is the key element in determining the guilt or innocence of those accused of the crimes against society in a criminal court of law. But in order to understand magnitude and necessity of evidence as a it relates to the criminal justice system one must know what are the five (5) key issues and or points regarding evidence. The first is what truly is evidence is it written documentation, is it expert testimony, is it hearsay (oral uncorroborated statements) in a matter of fact way it can be all just mentioned, none just mentioned, or some just mentioned and others as well. After understanding what "truly" constitutes evidence one must realize how and were evidence can be gathered to have the correct overall view of what is and is not evidence. Third all things that may be evidence may be unusable either in defense or prosecution of the defendant. So it becomes essential to understand the ground rules set forth both on the Federal and State level with regards to what evidence is actually permissible in a court of law. Next, we need to analyze to major issues that have become prevalent in our time regarding evidence in the adversary system and the effect recent rulings have had in dictating what is evidence and more importantly evidence permissible in a court of law. Finally, what effect does the process of obtaining, collecting, and using evidence mean for our adversary model used in the criminal justice system?II. What is evidence? Evidence as stated by Neubauer, is "any kind of proof offered to establish the existence or nonexistence of a fact in dispute, for example, testimony, writings, other material objects, demonstrations" (536). Though this definition suffices in explaining a general overview what is evidence, one must also understand that not everything a layperson would reason to constitute evidence is admissible. Admissibility is the first step int...
