4 Types of evidence considered by honorable jurors

Ancestral
Published on Feb 15, 2026
Article Video - Evidence Considered by Honorable Jurors - Friday, April 21, 2023 By Anna Von Reitz
There are, basically, four kinds of evidence: factual, circumstantial, eye-witness, and hearsay. The first three, factual and circumstantial and eye-witness testimony, can be entered in a common law court case. The fourth, hearsay, cannot.
Factual evidence includes all those things generally admitted by the Defendant and the Public, such as, the Defendant was wearing a dark blue suit at the time of his arrest. There was a full moon on the night of March 11th, 2022.
Circumstantial evidence includes those things that suggest rather than prove things, for example, because the Defendant was wearing a nice suit, it's unlikely that he intended to be mucking out a barn.
Eye-Witness Testimony includes all those things that other people directly see or hear and that they can directly attest to. Joan Adams says, "I heard Philip Dean threaten Eli White. He said, "If you mess with my bull again, you'll get something you don't like." -- and then he made a gesture with his fist, like he was chopping wood."
Eye-witness Testimony is notoriously unreliable because people see and even hear things differently, and their testimony can be heavily colored by their own prejudices and assumptions. Still, it can be helpful in establishing the overall context of a situation, and if two unrelated people testify to hearing and seeing the same things, it lends credibility to the testimony.
Irma Daniels, a cook who happened to be on break, heard Philip Dean say and do the same things as Joan Adams reported. Now, we have corroborated eye-witness testimony from a disinterested Third Party, which provides strong testimonial evidence.
If the Defendant agrees that yes, he said those words and made a gesture as described, the eye-witness testimony can safely be accepted as factual evidence.

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