In order to be admitted as evidence in an American trial, a photograph must be:

• Relevant
"Relevant evidence" is defined by the Federal Rules of Evidence (which govern federal trials and have been adopted by a majority of the states as well) as "evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence . . . more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." (Rule 401)
• More Probitive than Prejudicial.
Rule 402 of the Federal Rules says that relevant evidence can be excluded if its probative value is "substantially outweight by the danger of unfair evidence." This provision of the rules is often at issue when prosecutors in criminal cases want to admit graphic images of the wounds of their victims. How probitive are such images? How prejudicial are they?
• Authenticated.
The requirement that a photograph be authenticated means that someone familiar with what the photograph depicts must testify that the photograph accurately represents whatever it illustrates. This authenticator can be the photographer, but it can also be anyone at all, as long as he or she is familiar with the subject matter of the image. (See F.R.E. 901.)

Photographs have been used in American trials with frequency since the 1880s. In the nineteenth century, stereoscopic images were also sometimes used as evidence.

Today, in addition to the photograph, videotapes and even computer simulations and animations are used in trials.

What is our attraction to mechanical objectivity? In what do we have faith, the camera or the eye?

Maintained by jmnookin@bug.village.virginia.edu
URL: http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/ensp982/mnookin/evidence.html