The Oath of a Witness & Religious Belief

Quite in contrast to the Utah Court of Appeals in State v. Hall, 946 P.2d 712 (1997), the Massachusetts Court of Appeals in Commonwealth v. Murphy, 48 Mass. App. Ct. 143, 718 N.E.2d 395 (1999), generally threw cold water on the proposition that a witness' religious beliefs might be inquired into for the purpose of establishing that the witness appreciates the importance of telling the truth. However, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals concluded that any harm caused by such an inquiry was harmless because the witness, a ten year-old girl, said that her mother would "ground" her if she lied and the Massachusetts court felt that "[h]owever much the prosecutor may have wanted to persuade the jury that the complainant was to be believed because she was God-fearing, his attempt misfired. The witness was more concerned about displeasure and punishment by her mother than displeasure and punishment by God. This could not have been lost on the jury, and there was no reversible error."

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The Lockerbie Case

There is an interesting article in the London Review of Books about the Lockerbie-Pan Am Bombing Case. See Gareth Pierce, The Framing of al-Megrahi, London Review of Books (Sept. 24, 2009).

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Coming soon: the law of evidence on Spindle Law

Browser-based evidence marshaling: MarshalPlan in your browser

Browser-Based MarshalPlan 3.2

A slightly-improved browser-based version of MarshPlan is now available. Go here.

Other important tricks & reminders:

1. Do NOT use Internet Explorer, at least for the time being. (IE won't work.)

2. You will have to accept a plug-in.

3. When the browser page MarshalPlan appears, click on the button "Enter Marshalplan." If nothing seems to happen, shrink your browser or look under your browser window (but do not close your browser). You should see the stack "Network Manager." You are in MarshalPlan. Click buttons (links).

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If you do not wish to use a browser to run MarshalPlan, you still have the option of downloading MarshalPlan. To do so, go here and follow the instructions.

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As always, please keep in mind that MarshalPlan is not a prototype of a real-world real-time operating system. In its present configuration, it is more akin to a tinker-toy, suitable for use mainly in the classroom.

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The dynamic evidence page

Coming soon: the law of evidence on Spindle Law

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The dynamic evidence page

Coming soon: the law of evidence on Spindle Law

Browser-based evidence marshaling: MarshalPlan in your browser