Attack outline
Evidence Essay Attack
Review the Evidence Essay Attack with ordered issue-spotting steps and Florida flags where relevant before you jump back into practice.
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Ordered attack steps
- Does the item make a fact of consequence more or less probable? (FRE 401)
- If irrelevant, full stop — exclude under FRE 402
- Even if relevant, run the FRE 403 balance: substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, misleading the jury, delay, waste, or cumulativeness?
- FRE 403 favors admissibility — the word is SUBSTANTIALLY, not merely
- FRE 601 baseline competence (FL: § 90.601 — capacity to perceive, remember, communicate, understand oath)
- FRE 602 personal knowledge for lay testimony
- FRE 603 oath or affirmation
- FRE 605 judge cannot testify in the case being tried
- FRE 606 juror cannot testify before that jury
- Default: character cannot be used to prove propensity (FRE 404(a))
- Criminal defendant may open the door with a pertinent trait; prosecution may then rebut
- FRE 404(b) MIMIC uses: Motive, Intent, Mistake (absence), Identity, Common plan — plus knowledge, opportunity, preparation
- FRE 413-415: prior acts of sexual assault or child molestation admissible for propensity in those specific cases
- FRE 406 habit/routine practice (specific, repeated, semi-automatic) admissible without character analysis