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for handling evidence from initial receipt to final
disposition.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines evidence as “Any
species of proof, or probative matter, legally presented
at the trial of an issue, by the act of the parties and
through the medium of witnesses, records, documents,
exhibits, concrete objects, and so on, for the purpose of
inducing belief in the minds of the court or jury as to
their contention.”
Said another way, evidence is
anything that tends to prove or disprove any matter in
question, or to influence the belief regarding it.
The MCM, 1984, sets forth the rules of evidence to
be used before courts-martial. As an LN, you will not
be particularly concerned with the rules of evidence.
Such matters are best left to the lawyers. However, you
will be concerned with preserving evidence for use at
trial.
Constitutional Requirements
You have already covered the requirements for
taking statements and conducting searches and seizures
in chapter 5. Perhaps a review of chapter 5 would be
helpful at this point.
Unless the suspect or accused is afforded all the
rights that he or she is legally entitled to, any evidence
obtained from him or her, whether it be a statement or
seized articles, may be contested in court and found
inadmissible as evidence. Thus, it is very important that
all legal rights be afforded the suspect or accused.
Physical Handling of Evidence
To admit lawfully seized items in evidence at trial
they must be authenticated. That is, it must be shown
that they are what they purport to be. Sheer
administrative convenience dictates that all evidence
seized be tagged to indicate the following:
l
l
l
l
l
Date and time of seizure
Location of article when discovered
Identification of person, if any, from whom the
property was taken
Name of person seizing evidence
Name of suspect(s) against whom the evidence
may be used
The problem in getting evidence admitted, then, is
one of proving to the court that the evidence offered is
precisely the same evidence as was seized. Dependent
upon the characteristics of the evidence, in-court
identification may be made by either of two means, and
how you handle the evidence will depend on what
method of in-court identification is contemplated.
If the evidence has a peculiar identifying feature,
one familiar with that feature may identify the evidence
by that feature in court. The use of a serial number to
identify a typewriter is an example of this method of
identification. Your sole concern with such evidence is
to guarantee its presence in court, and this is done by
providing physical security until the trial.
Evidence that does not have such an identifying
feature must be treated with greater care. Suspected
marijuana cigarettes are an example of this kind of
evidence. To demonstrate that the proffered evidence is
the same as that seized, the TC will have to show a chain
of custody from the time of seizure until the time of trial.
The TC will prove his or her evidence by calling a
succession of witnesses beginning with the person who
made the seizure and ending with the person who
delivers the evidence to the court. Each witness will
testify how he or she got the evidence; what, if anything,
he or she did with it; and to whom he or she delivered
it. The necessity of limiting access to the evidence and
of keeping a record of those who have had control over
the evidence is obvious.
RECEIPT.— The Evidence/Property Custody
Document, OPNAV 5527/22, is used as the official
record of receipt, chain of custody, and final disposition
of items of physical evidence. The form normally is
prepared with an original and three copies. Entries
should be typed or printed in ink. The last or third copy
is used as a receipt when evidence is received from an
individual.
The original and other two copies are
presented to the evidence custodian who maintains the
original and first copy. The second copy is returned to
the investigator (master-at-arms [MAA] or Naval
Criminal Investigative Service [NCIS]) for submission
of the evidence for inclusion in the case file. An
example of a completed evidence custody document is
shown in figures 6-23A and 6-23B.
SAFEGUARDING.— Each individual in the chain
of custody is responsible for the care, safekeeping, and
preservation of items of evidence. Because of the
sensitive nature of evidence, an evidence custodian
assumes responsibility for the evidence when not in use
by you or other competent authority involved in the
investigation, such as the TC.
The evidence custodian must be a commissioned
officer, warrant officer, or an enlisted person E-6 or
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