Subject Index Evidence

Building Up the Fourth Amendment

By Scott Pyles
November
2024
Article
, Page 36
Carpenter v. United States has opened new protections from disclosure of electronic data under the Fourth Amendment. However, Illinois courts have moved cautiously in this new frontier.

Mind Over Matter

By Joseph T. Monahan & Matthew R. Davison
November
2024
Article
, Page 30
The Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act sets out protections and procedures that lawyers must heed before attempting to access a person’s mental health records.

Admitting Medical Expenses at Trial

By Hon. Eileen Marie O’Connor
June
2024
Article
, Page 24
Distinguishing admission from damages allocation, and meeting and exceeding foundational hurdles.

Where’s the Video?

By Charles Golaszewski
May
2024
Article
, Page 24
Advice for prosecutors and defense attorneys when video evidence never existed or was never obtained.

Trial court’s barring of a necessity defense in DWLR case did not deny the plaintiff a fair trial 

November
2023
Illinois Law Update
, Page 18
On Aug. 21, 2023, the Third District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that barring a necessity defense does not necessarily deny the defendant a fair trial in a criminal case.

Importance of Video Evidence

August
2023
Article
, Page 12
Video footage helps overturn summary judgment in premises liability case.

In Defense of Rejected Proposals

By Gino L. DiVito
June
2023
Article
, Page 40
A former member of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Illinois Evidence reviews its 2013 proposals for rules of evidence not adopted by the Supreme Court.

Trial court should consider arresting officer’s reports under Illinois Vehicle Code in assessing grounds for belief of driver being under influence of alcohol

April
2023
Illinois Law Update
, Page 16
On Jan. 20, 2023, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that an arresting officer’s official reports were admitted into evidence once they were filed, although the defendant neither stipulated nor chose to utilize the reports in his case.

Firearm suppressed where officers lacked reasonable suspicion to conduct a Terry search after observing defendant adjust his waistband and hearing defendant admit to dropping a bag of cannabis

March
2023
Illinois Law Update
, Page 20
On Dec. 16, 2022, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a firearm found on a defendant during a Terry search, after the defendant was observed by officers adjusting his waistband and stating he dropped a bag of cannabis, must be suppressed.

Access to expressway camera footage expanded for monitoring highway conditions and investigating certain crimes

October
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 16
This Act amends The Expressway Camera Act by modifying the circumstances under which footage from cameras on expressways and Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Cook County may be extracted.

Brief refusal to enter squad car insufficient for charges of resisting or obstructing a police officer

October
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 16
On July 29, 2022, the Fourth District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a brief refusal to put one’s foot in a squad car did not materially impede an officer’s job performance to support a conviction of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

No ineffective assistance of counsel where defense did not object to evidence properly admitted through hearsay exception

June
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 16
On Mar. 31, 2022, the Second District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that failure to object to hearsay evidence did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel when it would have been admitted through a hearsay exception.

One fingerprint found in the victim’s apartment may be sufficient to convict a defendant of burglary

April
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
On Jan. 21, 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a single, partial fingerprint might be sufficient to uphold a residential burglary conviction.

Prosecutor did not impermissibly shift the burden of proof to defendant when prosecutor did not blame defendant for not requesting evidence testing

April
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
On Jan. 21, 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a prosecutor did not impermissibly shift the burden of proof to the defendant when the prosecutor said in rebuttal closing argument that the defendant could have requested evidence testing.

Police had reasonable suspicion to conduct lawful Terry stop after anonymous tip

March
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 18
On Dec. 16, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence obtained through a Terry stop.

Digital Forensics

By Ed Finkel
February
2022
Cover Story
, Page 18
How the rich amount of data on mobile devices is hiding in plain sight.

Trial court did not abuse discretion in admitting Facebook messages into evidence

February
2022
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
On Nov. 18, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a trial court properly authenticated Facebook messages through circumstantial evidence.

Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence valid because defendant lacked knowledge and control of contents containing controlled substance

October
2021
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
Defendant was convicted after jury trial of possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver.

Court improperly admitted evidence of defendant’s prior bad acts to bolster witness credibility

September
2021
Illinois Law Update
, Page 18
On June 11, 2021, the Fifth District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a new trial is warranted because the state impermissibly used the defendant’s other bad acts as substantive evidence of the defendant’s guilt.

Spit Custody

By Amber Hopkins-Reed
July
2021
Article
, Page 42
Although familial DNA database searches have been used as a law-enforcement aid across the U.S., these searches have yet to be scrutinized by many courts, including in Illinois.

Hindsight Is 20/20

By Arlo Walsman
November
2020
Article
, Page 34
Admissibility of hindsight-bias evidence in Illinois.

For the Record

By Christopher DiPlacido
October
2020
Article
, Page 36
Exploring the unique postdeath tax-The Illinois Rules of Evidence and the admission of business records through foundational sources.

Voicemail admissible once victim identifies voice and provides context

February
2020
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
The defendant argued the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed prosecutors to play a voicemail recording of the victim during his cross-examination.

The Surprising Number of Differences Between the Federal and Illinois Rules of Evidence

By Gino L. DiVito
January
2020
Article
, Page 30
The Federal and Illinois Rules of Evidence diverge in dozens of ways worth noting.

What Every Trial Lawyer Needs to Know About Audio Recordings

November
2019
Article
, Page 42
The advent of smartphones containing audio and video capabilities gives virtually everyone the means to preserve evidence. But before you get to the question of whether the recording is authentic, you first need to be sure it was legally made.

Cracking Open the Corporate Coffer

By Thomas Drysdale
August
2019
Article
, Page 38
Unclear Seventh Circuit precedent and conflicting district court opinions have left unresolved whether corporate financial information is discoverable in relation to a punitive-damages claim in federal court.  
1 comment (Most recent August 13, 2019)

Lost Text Messages Lead to Sanctions

July
2019
Article
, Page 18
A defendant is sanctioned for destroying 50 text messages.

Court’s own driving knowledge considered judicially noticed fact when it ruled on evidence suppression

May
2019
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
A traffic stop based on failure to signal a lane change led to police finding methamphetamine after searching the defendant's vehicle.

From ISBA Central - Strategies for when opposing counsel challenges USPS’s tracking information

By Ted Harvatin, Bryan Sims, Adam Whiteman, Mark Moreno, & Mark C. Palmer
December
2018
Article
, Page 20
Opposing counsel challenges USPS's tracking information

Innocence challenge after guilty plea must present a truly persuasive demonstration of innocence through compelling evidence

December
2018
Illinois Law Update
, Page 14
On Sept. 28, 2018, the First District Appellate Court of Illinois held that a defendant raising a freestanding actual innocence challenge after previously entering a guilty plea must present a truly persuasive demonstration of innocence in the form of compelling evidence.

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