Americas Courts and the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example

This effect of the criminal rules of justice is apparent since the rules limit the nature or kind of evidence that courts may accept and the purpose for which the evidence may be used. Criminal Rules of evidence also have the effect of broadly defining relevance of facts while relaxing the common-law prohibitions on witness competency. There are rules that require courts to exclude relevant facts merely because of their propensity to prejudice, confusion, delays and to mislead (Neubauer & Fradella 454).

For instance, evidence of other crimes committed cannot be used to show conformity to the criminal behavior under review while such pieces of evidence can prove motive. Despite their perceived power-reduction effects, there are criminal rules of evidence that actually empower the courts. For instance, there are rules of evidence, which empowers judges and courts to eliminate pieces of evidence that are prejudiced, repetitive, and inflammatory or that are highly likely to waste the courts' resources and time.