united-states evidence trial
Labelling of exhibits in US criminal court. Why the repetition of letters?
<p>I have been watching a series of videos of a criminal trial in the USA.</p>
<p>I have noticed that exhibits for the defence are labelled with four consecutive letters but often (if not always) these letters are repetitive, e.g. JJJJ and KKKK. I'm on day 5 and have only just realised this so I haven't gone back to watch all the previous videos again in order to check. I'm sure about JJJJ and KKKK.</p>
<p>Here's an example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Defence lawyer: <em>I'm going to  show you what's been marked as defendant's exhibit KKKK.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/bbceZTVd2hs?list=PLoW1SIeAWaWY7qtlEtzsoRloAB7t6ndZI&amp;t=1068" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Video: Skylar Richardson Trial Day 5 Witness: Dr John White - Gynecologist Part 2</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Question</strong></p>
<p>Why would the labelling have repetition? For example, why might it not be KAAA? Or simply single letters, J, K, L, etc?</p>
<p>At whose discretion/direction are the numbers allocated? The judge's, the counsels?  Is there a standard or does each trial 'invent' its own standard for this?</p>

<p>Different courts have different practices, but I believe the general practice is for plaintiffs to use exhibit numbers, and for defendants to use exhibit letters. As with most procedural questions, the final decision belongs to the judge.</p>
<p>The repetition in letters comes in when you get to the end of the alphabet. After you've used A-Z, you go to AA, BB, CC ... ZZ, then AAA, BBB, CCC, and so on.</p>
