Procedural Justice

Contradictory Aspirations for Procedural Justice

The rules governing a trial can be understood as an attempt at procedural justice. Rules of evidence, which guide how evidence is acquired, preserved, and [Page 1268]presented in a court of law, are calculated to ensure that the trial process will produce an accurate verdict. Evidence that is deemed unreliable, such as various forms of hearsay, is excluded because the risks of miscarriages of justice are too great. But the production of reliable verdicts is not the only interest served by rules of evidence. Sometimes evidence is excluded even though it is relevant and reliable. Evidence that may have some probative value as to a defendant's guilt may be excluded if it tends to unduly prejudice the jury against the defendent in a way not countenanced by our societal values. For example, evidence of a defendant's prior criminal activity is typically disallowed, not because it does not shed some light (however slight) on a defendant's guilt, but because a jury may find it too compelling, far beyond its actual evidentiary value. In other words, a jury may find such evidence extremely probative of guilt because it suggests that the defendant has a criminal propensity. Another instance of excluding evidence that would be of value in the guilt-innocence inquiry is when that evidence is obtained in violation of the defendant's fundamental constitutional rights. This so-called exclusionary rule serves as a disincentive to law enforcement to act outside the parameters of proper governmental conduct set forth in the Bill of Rights.

This brief incursion into the complex area of evidence law highlights an important point about procedural justice: The pursuit of procedural justice is often contradictory. Although the overriding goal of procedural justice in the context of criminal trials is the attainment of accurate verdicts, the pursuit of accuracy must at times give way to our pursuit of other social values, such as the preservation of individual liberty and freedom from unconstitutional government intrusions.

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