State Courts (Rules of Evidence)

The state court system in the United States is a complex one, governed by myriad rules and specified procedures. The United States Constitution confers most of the powers in the country to the states, assigning only quite specific and discrete powers to the federal government. The United States has dual judicial systems, those at the federal level, and those operating at the state level. Within each of those judicial systems there are also civil and criminal courts. Violations of federal law are prosecuted through the federal court system; this occurs only in a discrete number of areas. The vast majority of civil and criminal proceedings related to violations of the law occur at the state level.

Using the 1995 murder trial in which the former football star O. J. Simpson was the defendant as an example, Simpson was tried in a state criminal proceeding for the murders of his former wife and her friend. Simpson was also tried for the crime of murder at the state civil level. Although at first glance it appears that he was tried twice for the same crime, which would appear to invoke (or violate) the rule of double jeopardy (a person may not be tried twice for the same crime), because the trials occurred at two different jurisdictional levels, a state criminal trial and a state civil trial, this did not constitute double jeopardy. Simpson was not convicted in the state criminal trial, but was found liable and required to pay monetary damages at the state civil trial.

The reason that O. J. Simpson could be tried twice for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman is this: the criminal and civil court systems in the United States are completely separate. The two courts have different rules of procedure and separate forms and means of imposing penalties. If an individual is convicted as the result of a criminal trial, there is the possibility of being sentenced to prison; this is not the case in a civil trial. A civil conviction typically results in the assessment of financial damages, and may involve being mandated to perform certain actions, like public speaking about the nature of the crime—as in the case of convictions involving the use of alcohol or illegal substances—or being prohibited from behaving in certain ways, such as being prevented from having contact with the individual that the defendant was accused of battering, for example.

In addition to the rules of evidence, there are a considerable number of other rules governing the means and the methods by which trials are to be conducted at the level of the state court system, whether civil or criminal. There are rules about pleading, which create a framework for the manner in which the claim or charge of the plaintiff must be stated. Discovery, the right to assemble information gathered by either the defense or the prosecution, is constrained by specific rules as to how the evidence is obtained, who has the right to custody of the evidence, the manner in which it is delivered or presented, what constitutes acceptable discovery materials, etc. There is a rule regarding burden of proof; in a criminal trial, there must be proof of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In a state civil trial law, the burden of proof is lowered and the plaintiff's case need only be proven by the preponderance of evidence. That means there must be more weight in favor of guilt than there is in favor of innocence, in order for a conviction of guilt to occur at the state civil level. In a state criminal trial, the defendant is accorded more rights and protections than at the state civil level. For example, a defendant in a state criminal trial cannot be forced to testify. In the case of O. J. Simpson, he invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination (saying something oneself that could, to a reasonable observer indicate admission of guilt).

The rule of protection states that a defendant has certain specific legal rights and protections in the case of a trial. In a criminal trial, the defendant is entitled to more safeguards and procedural rights than at the state civil level, because the potential penalties for conviction are much more onerous (burdensome, costly, or oppressive).

Whether the trial is at the criminal or civil level, every party has the right to appeal a conviction. In the case of an acquittal at a criminal trial, there is virtually no right of appeal, as a person may not be tried twice for the same crime in the same court of law. In a civil trial, the party for whom the court finds against (the losing party) has the right to appeal.

Although each state views this rule somewhat differently, and exercises the right to set its own parameters and create its own definitions, most states have laws regarding the speed with which cases must be tried. In the case of a criminal trial, there are generally constraints that it must occur within a reasonable time frame after the occurrence of the crime and the indictment of the defendant.