Crime Scene Evidence
Laying the Foundation for Crime Scene Evidence
In recent decades, significant advances in forensic technology and communications have revolutionized the art of collecting, sharing and using evidence to prosecute and convict accused criminals. These advances definitely make it easier for law enforcement (police and prosecutors) to put criminals away, but this not at the expense of the accused's constitutional rights to a fair trial. Therefore, courts have established different measures for ensuring that the forensic evidence that is used against a defendant is authentic and reliable. This paper will discuss the various safeguards in place and how law enforcement navigates through the process to maximize the benefit of the available forensic technology.
Generally speaking, on order for forensic evidence to be used against a defendant in court, the state must lay a proper foundation for that evidence. Specifically, this means the state must demonstrate that the evidence is authentic, reliable and relevant. The court (judge) in each individually case will determine whether the proper foundation has been laid, based on certain accepted standards established by statute or previous cases. Without the right foundation, the evidence cannot be used by the prosecution and the state will have a more difficult, or impossible, task of proving the defendant's guilt.
Authenticity
Authentic forensic evidence are items which are proven to be the same items collected from the crime scene, ranging from objects to bodily samples to photographs. Authentic items of forensic evidence typically do not photocopies of objects or replicas of items. Also it is the responsibility of the state to prove that the evidence is authentic. The Federal Rules of Evidence set forth the requirement for authentication in Rule 901 of the evidence code[footnoteRef:1]. Most of the time, the state only need introduce evidence through oral testimony of the chain...
The Importance of Effective Crime Scene Management The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature to explain the importance of securing crime scenes in order to protect evidence from contamination and preserve it for use by the courts. In addition, a discussion concerning different methods that might be necessary to document evidence at a crime scene and different collection methods that might be used at
Crime Scene Investigations: Many crime scene investigations revolved around safeguarding the crime scenes, protecting physical evidence, and gathering and transferring the evidence for scientific evaluation. This process is based on the role that physical evidence plays in the overall investigation and determination of a suspected criminal activity. Notably, the ability for physical evidence to play its role in the overall investigation process is dependent on actions that are taken early enough
4-8). While these standard procedure are relevant in the preservation of any crime scene, certain specifications exist when dealing with the unique challenges associated with the different types of crime scenes including homicides, rapes, arson, and nighttime crime scenes. For instance, in the case of homicide, as well as the aforementioned steps, the area must be preserved for trace evidence such as fingerprints. In the case of rapes or sexual
Crime Scene Investigation: A homicide crime has just occurred at a convenience gas station that included the presence of an employee, a mother, and her 15-year-old son who were witnesses of the crime. Upon arrival at the crime scene as a crime scene investigator at 3a.m, I found the deceased victim with an obvious gunshot wound in the chest as the first officer informed me of the present witnesses. As a
T. Apparantely in good health, need to investigate insurance and other issues, get medical report. Married, one-4-year-old son Appears happily married with young child, no indication of turmoil in marriage; check. Colleagues say victim was "very organized," and kept to himself, did not make friends nor enemies Mr. T. appears to be inoffensive, not prone to situations that would engender violence. Profession: Attorney; normal office hours 8am-5pm; known to work late on cases as necessary Q:
Crime scene investigation is a field with rapidly changing tools that seem to evolve almost every day as a result of the changes made in technology. However, even the simplest elements of a crime scene can still inform investigators an epic amount. For instance, in this case, the position of the body and the weapon used represent the main forms of evidence and can help investigators uncover the elements which motivated
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