Unit 351 Evidence Collection

Physical evidence is anything that can establish a crime has occurred and anything that links the crime to a criminal. Three examples of physical evidence are fibers, weapons, and hair.

The film, Evidence and Forensic: Due Process, highlights the development of evidence used everyday in the criminal justice system. Putting to sleep, stereotypical Hollywood crime shows, by displaying acceptable criminal evidence, then analyzing the evidence, and applying the evidence in court. The program accounts on the important techniques and actions taken by not only law enforcement, but also forensics specialists and lawyers.

Forensic evidence is tangible evidence that is obtained from the crime scene and examined by utilizing various scientific procedures to assist examiners in cracking a case. This Forensic evidence is obtained at the scene of a crime and transported to a laboratory, where it is handled by specialists. Three types of forensic and physical evidence are fingerprints, digital evidence and impressions.

Evidence may be different in each class but it still has the same objective. For example, in accounting in order for us to figure out one’s assets and liabilities we have to focus on the numbers which help lead us to a conclusion. In this class the evidence we look at is the law. We analyze certain portions of the law to figure out whether a person is guilty of committing the crime. In law evidence is essential to proving whether a person is innocent or guilty. Evidence can be anything like a fingerprint, blood, hair trace, etc it will help lead us to a

There are times when certain forms of evidence, such as blood and fingerprints, need to be obtained before the accused has time to destroy them (Inabau 2).

Crime scenes are known to have many clues left behind. The obvious would be a the body or bodies, clothing, and sometimes even the murder weapon. While these are great way to solve a case there's another kind of evidence; trace evidence. Trace evidence are small pieces of evidence that are laying around a crime scene. There are many types of trace evidence some of them include metal filings, plastic fragments, gunshot residue, glass fragments, feathers, food stains, building materials, lubricants, fingernail scrapings, pollens and spores, cosmetics, chemicals, paper fibers and sawdust, human and animal hairs, plant and vegetable fibers, blood and other body fluids, asphalt or tar, vegetable fats and oils, dusts and other airborne

Without the admission of the documents to give context to how the contraband was discovered, there are at least four individuals who might reasonably have possessed the contraband. To be sure, the parties contest the persuasive value of these documents vigorously. The State, maintains that the contraband was found in the trunk of a vehicle with multiple occupants and individuals to whom the vehicle was registered was not among the occupants. Whereas Johnson maintains that the documents are unreliable. Regardless of their persuasive value, the documents found with the vehicle were perhaps the only mechanisms to distinguish the possessor of the contraband from the numerous others who had access to the

All these types of evidence can be used during a court case or it may be only certain types of evidence that is used. It all depends on the type of case and the severity. In any case, if a lawyer is trying to prove innocents or guilt, they will want to have some type of evidence to back up their claim. In the past couple of years there has been a number of police officers and department that have been in the spot light for some kind of wrong doing. In cases like this, evidence to prove these police officers innocents is

If property has been abandoned, it is found in a place where the owner likely intended to leave it, but is in such a condition that

Firearm evidence is usually found and encountered in crime scenes against people. There could be many different circumstances like murder, homicide, assault, robbery, suicide just to name a few. So this is basically what firearm evidence

The person’s belonging that are obtain from the crime scene should be labeled, dated, and individually identified. The evidence now can be properly identified throughout the process. Law enforcement has rules and regulations to obey at the time of seizing evidence. Nevertheless, if the boundaries are overstepped, there may be room for the evidence to be inadmissible. Seizing evidence is always a great opportunity to place a guilty person away; however, protecting the individual rights are just as important.

The most efficient and acceptable means for the collection of evidence to be permissible and admissible to a court of law through trial proceedings is to maintain a credible chain of custody. However, the chain of custody is an insufficient factor without proper discovery retrieval and/or collection of evidence. When offenders respond to a scene in which there is evidence to be collected, only officers properly trained in the process are allowed to collect the evidence. In the State of Georgia, law enforcement officers undergo a strenuous police academy course in which they learn the fundamentals of collecting elements such as fingerprints and bodily fluids. In addition to learning the fundamentals of collecting elements at a crime scene, they are also instructed and trained on how to properly take crime scene pictures. These pictures are important because they show the courts where an element or piece of evidence was discovered in reference to the whole sight of the scene. Once the officer collects the elements/evidence according to his or her training they place the evidence in either a plastic or paper bag to be submitted into evidence. Upon the collection of evidence there is a legible record of each person that handles the evidence from start to finish

Physical evidence/scientific examinations is the evidence found at the scene of the crime. This can include clothing, blood, fingerprints, weapons and much more. An example of physical evidence could be any listed above but also a bloody knife or a casing from a bullet.

An example of this type of evidence would be the illegal search of a car by a police officer. The officer had no legal grounds to search a car but did. During the search the officer located a drug ledger with a list of transactions. The officer then investigates the ledger further and interviews a suspect listed.

Evidence is the key element in determining the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes against society in a criminal court of law. Evidence can come in the form of weapons, documents, pictures, tape recordings and DNA. According to the American Heritage College dictionary, evidence is the documentary or oral statements and the material objects admissible as testimony in a court of law (476). It is shown in court as an item of proof, to impeach or rehabilitate a witness, and to determine a sentence. This paper will examine two murder cases, O.J. Simpson and Daniel Taylor.