Chain of custody is a legal rule that ensures evidence presented in court is reliable and tamper-proof. It requires the party introducing evidence to establish a clear history of possession. This helps prevent fraud and unreliable evidence from being presented, which can lead to erroneous conclusions. The chain of custody rules also require that the evidence collector be a neutral party.
Chain of custody is a rule of the Evidence Act that ensures that any evidence accepted by the court is acceptable and tamper-proof. The party who wants to introduce evidence during a judicial proceeding has a duty to establish a chain of custody according to the rules of evidence in the jurisdiction. In most cases it is not required for all types of evidence; these are mainly evidence that has been seized or under the control of another. Many statutes require certain elements to be met when a party wishes to establish a chain of custody. The main elements are that the evidence is what the party claims it is, that it was in the continuing possession of each person in control until it was presented at trial and in the testimony of the persons in possession, and that the evidence remained in substantially the same condition until it was transferred to another person or to the party offering the evidence. The evidence collector must also be a neutral party.
Juries and judges rely on legal evidence to make their decisions about liability in civil cases or to deliver a verdict of guilty or not guilty. Tampered with, substituted, or unreliable evidence can often lead to erroneous conclusions. The chain of custody rules in the Evidence Act attempt to address the issue of entering only reliable evidence during trials so that the outcome of a case is reasonable. Elements in statutes exist to establish the reliability of evidence in order to assist judges and juries in handing down sentences and verdicts. Without chain of custody rules, the evidence offered can be suspect and can leave doubts about the final decisions that courts make in trials.
The elements needed to establish the chain of custody also help prevent fraud. To begin with, the party offering the evidence must provide testimony that the evidence is what is claimed. For example, testimony that the evidence is the defendant’s blood sample helps prevent the prosecutor from offering someone else’s blood sample. Another item to prove is that the evidence was in the continuous possession of one or more people until it was brought to trial. That testimony is often included to avoid tampering or someone mistaking real evidence for fake evidence.
Evidence must often be in essentially the same condition as when it was seized. The testimony of each person who seized or had control over the evidence is often needed to show that it is essentially unchanged. Chain of custody rules also require that the person collecting evidence have no personal interest in the outcome of the trial or in the evidence. If the party is not neutral, the opportunity for fraud may exist.
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