In this clinical paper, the author discusses criminal confessions from the point of view of the expert witness who may be asked to comment on the reliability of the statement and waiver of rights. From the time a suspect is in police custody, constitutional protections against self-incrimination and for due process are in place. The Supreme Court set the standard for these situations in the 196...

In English and American law the testimony of witnesses is limited and weakened by many restrictions. This procedure is justified by tradition and precedent but much of it is not justified by common sense. An intelligent and honest witness is not permitted to make his testimony as effective and convincing as it might be made, as in France, for example, because of certain old rules formulated and...

That sort of capacity which involves not the organic powers, moral and mental, requisite for all testimony, nor yet the emotional power of unbiased observation and statement, but the skill to acquire accurate conceptions which may be termed experiential capacity. The person possessing it is commonly called an expert. This capacity may be obtained by special training or experience, or by both. I...

In an article in the journal Science, Faust and Ziskin have asserted that the testimony of psychologists and psychiatrists cannot "meet legal standards for expertise" for purposes of trial evidence. ' This assertion, given visibility and credence by a journal of the stature of Science, understandably has raised concern among forensic mental health profess i o n a l ~ . ~ Attorneys have begun to...

The present study investigated whether people used the gender of an expert witness as a heuristic cue to evaluate the evidence presented by the expert. Specifically, the gender of the expert and the complexity of the expert’s testimony (low, high) were varied systematically within a simulated civil trial involving an antitrust price-fixing agreement, It was expected that the male expert would b...