Admissible Evidence Evidence

Which may be received by a trial court to aid the trier of fact (judge or jury) in deciding the merits of a controversy. Each jurisdiction has established rules of evidence to determine questions of admissibility. The judge may properly receive only admissible evidence but he need not permit a party to introduce all admissible evidence. Cumulative evidence, for example, may be excluded. Moreover, under the Federal Rules of Evidence a judge may within his discretion exclude otherwise admissible evidence when the court determines that its probative value is outweighed by countervailing factors such as undue consumption of time, prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading of the jury. Federal Rules of Evidence 403.

A lurid, gory photograph, for example, depicting the scene of the crime, the weapon used, or the injury to the victim may have very high probative value as to several issues in a criminal trial for atrocious assault and battery but is so highly inflammatory as to cause undue prejudice in the minds of the jurors, and it will be excluded if there is any other way to prove the necessary facts.