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I want to talk today about circumstantial evidence versus direct evidence now circumstantial evidence has gotten a really bad reputation and we've all seen in the old law movies where the defense lawyer goes to the DA and says all you got is circumstantial evidence and the implication is that they don't have a very strong case but the fact is the law says that circumstantial and direct evidence are equally valid as a method of proof and a jury is permitted to convict a defendant based purely on circumstantial evidence if they find that evidence convincing beyond a reasonable doubt let me take a moment and explain the distinction between circumstantial and direct evidence I'll give you an example a police officer goes into court points at the defendant at counsel table and says I saw that guy commit a robbery I was sitting in my patrol car looking down the street I saw him go up to the victim point a gun and steal the victim's wallet that would be an example of direct evidence because the police officer purports to have directly observed the crime now let me change the example suppose the police officer comes into court and says I never actually saw the robbery took place but I got a radio call of a robbery in this alley and I saw the defendant running away from the scene where the robbery occurred I apprehended the defendant and I found the victim's ID and credit card in his pocket that would be an example of circumstantial evidence it's a set of circumstances from which one could infer that the defendant committed the robbery as you can see circumstantial evidence can be very convincing his criminal defense attorneys it's our job in circumstantial evidence cases to show that there's a reasonable and innocent explanation for the circumstances I actually had a case very similar to our last example and we were able to show the court that really somebody else committed the robbery threw down the victim's wallet at the scene our client went and got the credit card and license from the wallet and ran off but did not actually commit the robbery in that case all of the robbery charges against our client were dismissed