Hi all.
Does anyone know of any high-profile prosecutions that have collapsed due to the mis-management of the chain of custody of digital evidence? I'm doing some research into the subject and would appreciate any pointers. Any UK cases are particularly welcome but I will appreciate US or other jurisdiction cases too!
Many thanks.
Dan.
I think the John Mark Carr case (the guy who was accused of killing Jon Benet Ramsey) was a spectacular example of this. They lost some of the evidence.
I was not too clear on your broad question, because I wasn't certain what elements of mis-management you were referring.
Mis-management and handling of digital evidence cases are hard to find and it is not surprising you may seek case law in this area given the 2005 Final report produced by the Law Society
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The report identifes the law in Member States dealing with including handling of evidence. Have a look at Question 14.
A case I refer to when asked about evidence handling goes back to 1988
R .v. Mahon 1988 NLJ 702-703. It deals with mis-management in away due to failure of having proper procedures in place when handling evidence.
You could of course look for The Committee of Experts on criminal procedural law problems connected with Information Technology and see seek out their final report recommendations.