direct evidence


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Related to direct evidence: hearsay evidence, indirect evidence

Direct Evidence

Evidence in the form of testimony from a witness who actually saw, heard, or touched the subject of questioning. Evidence that, if believed, proves existence of the fact in issue without inference or presumption. That means of proof which tends to show the existence of a fact in question, without the intervention of the proof of any other fact, and which is distinguished from Circumstantial Evidence, often called indirect.

Evidence that directly proves a fact, without an inference or presumption, and which in itself, if true, conclusively establishes that fact.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

direct evidence

n. real, tangible, or clear evidence of a fact, happening, or thing that requires no thinking or consideration to prove its existence, as compared to circumstantial evidence. (See: circumstantial evidence, evidence)

Copyright © 1981-2005 by Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. All Right reserved.

direct evidence

in the law of evidence, evidence of a fact in issue given by a witness who came to it through his own senses or evidence from a document or item produced before the court. See CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006
References in periodicals archive ?
The "smoking gun" relative to our president has occurred over and over again when one examines the direct evidence of his utterances during the 2016 presidential campaign all the way to current rallies and tweets.
The prosecution sought for the denial of Dicay's motion for reconsideration insisting that direct evidence pointed to his indispensable participation in the murder of 58 persons during the Nov.
"They suggested that they were not widening the case to include other NoW people, but would do so if they got direct evidence, say NoW journos directly accessing the voicemails (this is what did for Clive)."
Direct evidence: All other evidence such as deposition by witnesses, forensic or scientific opinion etc directly proving a particular fact concerning the commission of a crime
Part IV demonstrates how Alaska case law has diverged from federal case law and suggests that Alaska courts should abandon their reliance on direct evidence and follow the federal precedent.
So, the fossils provide direct evidence that a rainforest existed in that area more than 10 million years ago.
Now researchers have uncovered the first direct evidence that maternal exposure to a phytoestrogen in soy can cause lifelong epigenetic changes--that is, changes in gene activity from processes other than changes in the DNA sequence--in mouse offspring [EHP 114:567-572; Dolinoy et al.].
This study provides support for the idea that hormones influence MS, but not direct evidence that oral contraceptives can prevent MS.
We investigated a case of hepatitis E acquired after persons ate wild boar meat, Genotype 3 hepatitis E virus (HEV) RNA was detected in both patient serum and wild boar meat, These findings provided direct evidence of zoonotic foodborne transmission of HEV from a wild boar to a human.
In none of these images is there much direct evidence of any overt health hazard--no rodent infestation, no rotting food--just piles and piles of stuff, a sedimentation of acquisition that the artist often seems to find more compelling than upsetting, and more open to interpretation than one might expect.
The paleontologists who unearthed the 130-million-year-old fossils in northeastern China announced in October that their find provides the first direct evidence that tyrannosaurs had protofeathers.

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