Bias Impeachment and the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence

John R. Schmertz
Karen Czapanskiy, University of Maryland School of Law

Abstract

In the fall of 1971 the Supreme Court's Advisory Committee presented to the Court the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence. The Committee failed to include a rule on impeachment by bias, interest, or prejudice. In failing to include such a rule, the Committee bypassed the opportunity to reconcile a conflict over both the content and methodology of this form of impeachment. The authors, in an attempt to show the need for a rule dealing with bias impeachment, analyze the present decisional conflict in this area. They conclude by proposing a rule designed to add some uniformity to this highly persuasive method of impeachment.