Evidence Law in the Ugandan Jurisdiction

Evidence integrity and continuity Introduction In criminal investigations, it is vital to keep the evidence protected and ensure that it does not become contaminated, is tampered or altered in any way. There are two ways of maintaining evidence is in its truest form; evidence continuity and evidence integrity. Evidence is a vital component in criminal investigations and is the determining factor in successfully prosecuting the defendant as it identifies the offender or those who are involved. Evidence institutes facts of the crime and also proves that a crime has been committed (Tom McEwen 2011).

“A British Lord wrote an affidavit to the British government saying he had heard Lord Goddard say during the trial that "at all costs Craig and Bentley were to be found guilty." When both Craig and Bentley denied that they had said, "Let him have it," Judge Goddard lashed out: "Those words are sworn to by three police officers. Are you going to say they are conspicuous liars? Do you believe these three officers have come into the box and sworn what is deliberately untrue?” It is obvious the predisposition of the judge to believe the argument of the police above all, and again, it is shown the prevalence of the officer´s

Moreover, the feature correlates what governs the use of evidence, and how civil and criminal trials work. There are two types of evidence the first being direct, which provides “information that is beyond reasonable doubt.” The second, circumstantial, which may suggest proof, but does not absolutely prove something. The acceptable criminal evidence “provides

Now a day’s evidence can change a person’s life in the blink of an eye. “People were often punished for crimes based on the word of one or two individuals, with little concern given to sorting out the truth of the affair” (Hunter 12). But today a person must be tried and some physical evidence is needed in order for a person to be convicted of a crime.

During a trial the plaintiff will attempt to prove their case by the presentation of evidence to the trier of fact. The evidence usually includes testimony of persons involved; witnesses as well as physical things such as pictures, documentation/records, recordings etc…

Evidence is any property that comes into the custody of a law enforcement officer when such property may tend to prove or disprove the commission of a crime, or the identity of the suspect, pursuant to an official criminal investigation.

evidence. ~(RT 212)~ The prosecution also played portions of the recording during closing arguments. ~(RT 323)~

People v. DiStefano is most important to our case, because it outlines the burden of proof. According to the case,

The definition of the general term evidence is defined as “something (including testimony, documents, and tangible objects) that tends to prove or disprove the existence of an alleged fact” (Black’s Law Dictionary 9th ed., 2009). When I think of evidence I think of it as something that can be used to prove the truth of a crime. Examples of evidence could be witnesses, fingerprints, paperwork and much more. Evidence is basically anything and everything that can beat the case. Understanding and locating a case can be very difficult. Here is an example, U.S. Supreme Court in Davis v. Washington 547 U.S. 813, 165 L.Ed. 2d 224, 126 S.Ct. 2266 (2006). First be sure to understand that165 L.Ed. 2d 224 to find Davis v. Washington will provide you with

Anytime a person is accused of a crime, the state becomes responsible for proving his or her guilt in court. To do this, a prosecutor must submit evidence to support the state’s charge. And as a result, the responsibility of proving the case—or in other words, the burden of proof—lies completely on the prosecutor’s hand. Simple terms, this means that the evidence against the individual must be so substantial that no reasonable person would doubt his or her guilt (Burden of proof,

If the non-moving party fails to make a sufficient showing on an element for which it has the burden of proof, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of

Burden of Proof: A party’s obligation to convince the decision makers in a trial that their facts are true by evoking evidence.

The burden of proof has two components to include: the burden of production and the burden of persuasion. The burden of production is the obligation to present evidence to the judge or jury. The burden of persuasion is the duty to convince the judge or jury to a certain standard, such as beyond a reasonable doubt, which is defined shortly. This is completed by measuring point and is determined by examining the quantity and quality of the evidence presented. The plaintiff or prosecutor generally has the burden of proving the case. The defendant often has the burden of proving any defense. There are standards for burden of proof depending on whether it’s a civil or crime case.

Common law also permitted the prosecution to adduce evidence that was relevant to the accused’s guilt of the offence charged,

Evidence is defined as any matter of fact, the effect, tendency, or design of which is to produce in the mind a persuasion, affirmative or disaffirmative, of the existence of some other matter of fact that a crime has been committed.(Paul B. Watson, 1986) In a legal sense, evidence is the information presented in court during a trial which enables the judge and jury to decide a particular case (Garland & Stuckey, 2000). There are two main types of evidence, which are testimony and physical items which can be presented to the judge and jury during a criminal trial. Physical evidence is any evidence found at the perpetrator’s