Anonymous Videos Used to Take Children Away from Mother in Child Welfare Trial: Colorado Court of Appeals Weighs in on Authentication
In People In Interest of M.V., 432 P.3d 628, 2018 WL 5988705, the Colorado Court of Appeals was asked to review the decision of a trial judge ordering that a mother’s children be adjudicated as dependent and neglected, thereafter imposing a treatment plan for the mother and removing the children from her custody. Central to...
“Evaluation of the Forensic Science Regulator’s recommendations regarding image comparison evidence”
I have recently published an article in the scientific journal Forensic Science International: Synergy. Here is the abstract: Expert image comparison evidence can be a vastly helpful tool in the search for the truth, a central tenet of the criminal justice system. This evidence assists the court in determining the relationship between a...
Authentication of Social Media and Other Videos in Northern Ireland Terrorism Cases
Courts in Northern Ireland have made important admissibility rulings regarding the authentication of videos presented as evidence in terrorism cases. One case addresses the admission of key video evidence when no authentication witnesses were called at all while the second case deals with the admissibility of unsupported video as well as questionable video posted...
Case Study: How a YouTube Rap Video was Used to Convict a Defendant
Video uploaded to social media sites must be authenticated in order to be admissible. The question of what level of proof is required to meet the authentication requirement was explored recently in United States v. Pettway, 2018 WL 4958962 (United States District Court, W.D. New York). The defendant was convicted by a jury of various...
Case Study: Vehicle Speed Determination from Video Evidence – Video Evidence Excluded Due to Unreliability and Failure to Authenticate
State of New Hampshire v. Witty (unreported, November 25/15, New Hampshire Superior Court, Southern District, Docket No. 226-2014 CR-00568) is an interesting case wherein the state sought to lead vehicle speed determination evidence premised on problematic surveillance video without the use of an expert witness. The defense sought to exclude this evidence. The...
Case Study: Trial Judge Performs Image Comparison When Crown Fails to Present Expert Evidence
In R. v. Ermine, 2018 SKQB 77 (Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench), the trial judge was placed in the position of having to conduct his own video analysis because the Crown failed to call the necessary expert evidence. In this case, three individuals robbed a bar. Two of the robbers pled guilty earlier and...
The Court Needs the Best Video Evidence Available: Why a Qualified Forensic Video Expert is Essential
The function of a trial court is to decide the legal dispute that is brought before it by the litigants. In a criminal case, it is the state that charges the defendant with a crime and commences a prosecution. When the case reaches the trial stage, the prosecution (and sometimes the defence) will...
Chicago Murder Prosecution Falters When Expert Fails to Stay Within His Lane
Currently, a murder trial is underway in Chicago wherein former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with unlawfully killing Laquan McDonald by shooting him 16 times. The shooting was captured on police dashcam video. The prosecution called FBI forensic video analyst Mark Messick who had enhanced the video evidence and inserted...
Frame by Frame Analysis: Better than Just Hitting Play
Video images can provide significant information about what occurred during an event and about the people involved. Being an objective observer, the video camera records the events that occurred before it to the best of its ability, without favor or prejudice to the people depicted. It is for these reasons that video evidence...
Stay Within Your Lane!: The Importance of Knowing Your Boundaries as an Expert Witness
When an expert witness is tendered before the court, the attorney presenting the witness must advise the judge as to the specific field(s) of expertise in which the attorney wants the witness qualified. At the conclusion of the qualification voir dire, in which the proposed expert’s qualifications are examined, and after hearing legal...