What is "direct evidence"

Direct \Di*rect"\, a. [L. directus, p. p. of dirigere to direct: cf. F. direct. See Dress, and cf. Dirge.]

1. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means.

   What is direct to, what slides by, the question.
   --Locke.

2. Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken.

   Be even and direct with me.
   --Shak.

3. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.

   He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words.
   --Locke.

   A direct and avowed interference with elections.
   --Hallam.

4. In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.

5. (Astron.) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body.

6. (Political Science) Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates; as, direct nomination, direct legislation. Direct action.

   1. (Mach.) See Direct-acting.

   2. (Trade unions) See Syndicalism, below. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

      Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said ``I can not come;'' -- correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua.

      Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; -- opposed to circumstantial evidence, or indirect evidence. -- This distinction, however, is merely formal, since there is no direct evidence that is not circumstantial, or dependent on circumstances for its credibility.
      --Wharton.

      Direct examination (Law), the first examination of a witness in the orderly course, upon the merits.
      --Abbott.

      Direct fire (Mil.), fire, the direction of which is perpendicular to the line of troops or to the parapet aimed at.

      Direct process (Metal.), one which yields metal in working condition by a single process from the ore.
      --Knight.

      Direct tax, a tax assessed directly on lands, etc., and polls, distinguished from taxes on merchandise, or customs, and from excise.

n. evidence (usually the testimony of a witness) directly related to the fact in dispute [ant: circumstantial evidence]

Direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion (in criminal law, an assertion of guilt or of innocence) directly, i.e., without an intervening inference. Circumstantial evidence, by contrast, consists of a fact or set of facts which, if proven, will support the creation of an inference that the matter asserted is true.

For example: a witness who testifies that he saw the defendant shoot the victim gives direct evidence. A witness who testifies that he saw the defendant fleeing the scene of the crime, or a forensics expert who says that ballistics proves that the defendant’s gun shot the bullet that killed the victim both give circumstantial evidence from which the defendant’s guilt may be inferred.

In direct evidence, a witness relates what he or she directly experienced. (Usually the experience is by sight or hearing, though it may come through any sense, including [smell,] touch or pain. State v Famber, 358 Mo 288, 214 SW2d 40.)