By: Dr. Peter A. Barone, Esq.
It is important for the law
enforcement official to know and understand what it meant by the term cumulative
evidence. Under the “Cumulative Evidence
Rule,” the improper admission or exclusion of evidence which is merely
repetitious or duplicative is deemed harmless error on the theory that it did
not affect the verdict. The rule is applicable in a wide variety of situations
where evidence on a certain issue has been admitted during the trial and other
related evidence on the same matter has been improperly admitted or excluded.
For example, the rule has been applied where one witness testified on a subject
and another witness was erroneously permitted or prevented from testifying on
the same subject. It has been applied where testimony or an affidavit was
admitted into evidence and a deposition on the same matter was wrongfully
excluded. It also has been applied where
pictures of an injury have been admitted and slides of the same injury have
been
excluded.
Essentially, the cumulative evidence rule is based on the premise that reversal
is not required where there is evidence in the record which
"neutralizes" the prejudice resulting from the improper admission or
exclusion of evidence on the same subject. However, the error is not harmless
in a cumulative sense unless the neutralizing evidence has the same probative
effect as the evidence improperly excluded or admitted. That is, to be truly
cumulative, the evidence must be of the "same kind tending to prove the
same point." This happens a great deal when there are two or more officers
on a scene that competently observe something or even if there is an officer
and civilian there are still two or more people that can testify to the same
facts of what they observed and what occurred.
