ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the benefits and costs of studying evidence law by studying evidence stories in general and true crime in particular. Our initial approach was to hire a skilled graduate to create a large bundle of witness statements to be used for the course’s weekend take-home exam. Developing and refining those materials required a lot of effort and a significant financial cost. More importantly, it necessitated creating a new story for each exam, including a cast of characters, one or more plausible scenarios of how legally relevant events (typically a serious crime) happened, and considerable detail that would flesh out at least one party’s evidence. Evidence lawyers and academics are very familiar with this genre of problem. The application of rules of evidence is highly contextual, turning on exactly how evidence is used, which in turn depends on the surrounding evidence that informs each party’s case theory and proof.
