Evidence supports the truth of a claim, while proof supports or disproves a legal claim. Evidence tampering is illegal and involves falsifying, modifying, or amending evidence. Tampering with physical evidence at a crime scene is also illegal. Tampering is often done to change perceptions of past events and can lead to punishments for the innocent or gains for the guilty. It is not always possible to tell if evidence has been tampered with or forged.
Evidence, in general terms, is anything that can support the truth of a claim. In law, proof is anything that can support a legal claim or, on the other hand, prove that a legal claim is false. Evidence tampering is an unlawful act in which evidence is falsified, modified, or amended in order to support or undermine a legal claim.
Let’s say, for example, that a person has been sued for refusing to pay a bill. If the named person altered the related invoice, bank statement or bank records to make it appear that he paid the bill, it would be a clear case of evidence tampering. This is illegal and is punishable by law. Those convicted of this crime may be forced to pay fines and even serve their sentences in jail or prison.
While documents can be tampered with, evidence tampering can also involve physical evidence. When the police investigate a crime scene, it’s important that the space is secured and that no one tampers with the scene until professionals can examine everything. Removing or even repositioning anything within a crime scene is evidence tampering. In fact, even inserting new elements into a crime scene is tampering with evidence.
One of the main reasons people tamper with evidence is to change perceptions of past events. The 2002 film Insomnia starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams is a film largely based on evidence tampering. In the film, Al Pacino’s character is a police officer named Will Dormer who is guilty of planting evidence. In the film, Will Dormer accidentally shoots and kills a colleague while pursuing a suspect in a murder case. As she tries to bring the killer to justice, she also plants evidence against him in an attempt to re-assign blame for her colleague’s death.
It is not always possible to tell whether the evidence has been tampered with or not. This is especially true if the evidence has been destroyed. If documents that can be used as evidence have been destroyed or burned, for example, it can be very difficult to restore them enough to decipher their original text. Furthermore, it is not always possible to tell whether a piece of evidence has been forged. Tampering with evidence can seriously change the course of legal decisions and proceedings, and can even lead to punishments for the innocent or gains for the guilty.
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