There are two main types of evidence that can be used during a criminal trial. They are called direct and circumstantial evidence.
Direct evidence is any evidence that can directly connect an accused person to a crime. Circumstantial evidence, meanwhile, is any evidence that seems to suggest that a person may have been connected to a crime.
It’s also worth noting that there are other types of evidence that fall into either the direct or circumstantial categories. You should make sure that you’re familiar with these types of evidence if you’re a police investigator, a lawyer, or someone else who is a part of the legal system.
Here are five types of evidence that you can collect and use during a jury trial.
- Physical Evidence
Of all the different types of evidence on this list, this type is the one that people are most familiar with. Physical evidence is, as its name would imply, any item or items that can connect someone to a crime.
Physical evidence includes things like:
- Weapons
- Tire marks
- Shoe prints
- Clothing
The first thing that investigators will do when securing a crime scene is look for any physical evidence. It’s often the strongest type of evidence around.
- Video Evidence
Another thing that investigators will look for when they’re locking down a crime scene is the presence of cameras. They’ll do this in an attempt to get their hands on any video evidence that could show what took place during a crime.
In some cases, they’ll find security cameras set up that captured what happened. In others, they’ll locate a hidden camera with audio that recorded what went down during a crime.
- Forensic Evidence
As recently as just several decades ago, forensic evidence wasn’t really a thing. The technology didn’t yet exist to look for and identify DNA samples found on a crime scene.
But nowadays, forensic evidence plays a big part in the investigations of crimes. This evidence is one of the strongest types of evidence that you can bring to a jury trial.
- Trace Evidence
When a person commits a crime, they’ll typically try to cover their tracks by clearing out any obvious physical evidence. But they may end up leaving some trace evidence behind.
This trace evidence will include things like:
- Hair
- Clothing fibers
- Gunshot residue
These things might not seem like much at first. But they can help to crack a crime case wide open and give lawyers a decided advantage in a courtroom.
- Testimonial Evidence
When you picture a jury trial taking place in your head, you probably imagine a bunch of witnesses taking the stand to reveal what they know about a crime that occurred. The testimonies from these witnesses are called testimonial evidence.
Lawyers will usually try to gather as much testimonial evidence as they can to give their other evidence a big boost. It can really come in handy when they’re trying to win a case in court.
Start Collecting And Using These Types Of Evidence To Win Trials
As you can see, there are many different types of evidence that can be collected and used in trials. If you’re a lawyer or someone else who works in the legal system, you need to know about all the latest types of evidence that can be used.
You should also aim to get your hands on as many different types of evidence as you can when you’re building a case for a jury trial. They could make or break your case in the end.
Get more legal advice by browsing through our other blog articles.
