University of North Carolina School of Law Carolina Law Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2006 Evidence History, the New Trace Evidence, and Rumblings in the Future of Proof Robert P. Mosteller University of North Carolina School of Law,
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[email protected]. Evidence History, the New Trace Evidence, and Rumblings in the Future of Proof Robert P. Mosteller* I. INTRODUCTION This paper is in two parts. The first part is about developments in the rules of evidence and particularly about developments in the Federal Rules of Evidence, which have had a major impact on evidence rules in many states. This part turns out to be largely about the past because my sense is that the impact of changes in the formal rules of evidence, which were substantial, are largely historic. In one area, however, significant future changes in the formal rules seem possible: those that may be made as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Washington,1 which dramatically changed confrontation and may unleash hearsay reformulation. The second part deals with my sense that technological and scientific advances may have a dramatic impact in altering the way cases, particularly criminal cases, are proved and evaluated in the future.