Destruction of evidence is the loss, destruction, or deterioration of material that could provide evidence in a case. It is viewed negatively by the court, but sometimes evidence needs to be destructively tested. Evidence is also routinely destroyed after a set amount of time in closed cases.
Destruction of evidence is the loss, complete destruction, or deterioration of material that could provide evidence in a case. There is a duty to preserve evidence for all parties to a case, and destruction is often viewed prejudicially, as the court assumes that the only reason for destroying evidence is the belief that it might be incriminating or exculpatory, a whichever part destroys it. There may be legal penalties for destroying evidence.
Evidence can be destroyed in a variety of situations. Sometimes a party in custody of evidence behaves negligently and loses or exposes it to risk. For example, a coroner may not collect DNA evidence correctly, making subsequent testing impossible. Similarly, a police officer may fail to observe chain of evidence procedures by leaving evidence unsecured in the seat of his vehicle, leading to loss of evidence due to theft.
In other cases, the destruction of evidence may appear to be intentional. Shredding documents is one example, as are attempts to deliberately spoil evidence such as burning or hiding it. This wanton destruction of evidence tends to be viewed with the utmost suspicion. The court may rule in favor of the opposing party if the destruction of evidence comes to light, arguing that it may have played a critical role in the case and now cannot be used due to the destruction.
It is important to be aware that the destruction of evidence is not always viewed negatively by the court. Sometimes evidence needs to be subjected to destructive testing to find out more information. Ideally both parties agree to this and a judge rules that the test should proceed. One example is DNA testing; if there is only a small sample, the test will mess it up and make it impossible to repeat it at another facility or in the future. Evidence analysts may be forced to make a decision between destroying evidence to gather vital information or saving it and being unable to draw any conclusions from the tests.
Evidence is also routinely destroyed after a set amount of time in closed cases. Once a court has heard a matter and made a decision, the evidence is kept long enough to make it available for appeals, and then the party charged with keeping it has the right to destroy it. This frees up space for storage. Courts may decide to retain evidence of historical or legal interest beyond this mandatory holding period.
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