NCJ Number
126090
Date Published
Unknown
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Paying expert witnesses can be abused by a prosecutor or a defense attorney in an all-out attempt to win the favor of a jury or judge.
Abstract
United States Rule of Evidence 706 allows any court in the land to appoint expert witnesses at its own discretion and pay them whatever it desires. Paying the expert witness whatever is necessary to obtain the desired testimony is being done to a shocking extent in some states. The only states in which a citizen's right to a fair trial is being protected from this abuse are those states that have expert witness fees set by State statute - only about half the states. Most State statutes contain some provision intended to prevent an individual from earning too much as a paid witness. This normally takes the form of allowing a witness to collect only one per diem for each day of service, regardless of the number of cases testified to. Also, there are no clear rules about who can be declared to be an expert witness. In the present system, money which should have been spent on salaried investigators to find out if legal charges are true is spent, instead, to manufacture "proof" that an accused person is guilty.