"Chain of custody" is a mantra of the Oswald Defense Counsel branch of the CT community. It's a favorite of Jim DiEugenio. Defects in the chain of custody may affect either the weight or admissibility of an item of evidence. If there is a reasonable probability the item offered is the same item originally taken into evidence, it will be admitted. perhaps with an instruction to the jury concerning its weight. If there is not a reasonable probability, it will not be admitted. At trial, the various officers would testify as to what actually occurred and why there seem to be inconsistencies in their reports. That would determine whether there was, in fact, an actual defect in the chain of custody. Except in CT World, you can't look at 60-year-old documents and conclude the chain of custody was defective.
If there is a reasonable probability the item offered is the same item originally taken into evidence, it will be admitted.A reasonable probability?
At trial, the various officers would testify as to what actually occurred and why there seem to be inconsistencies in their reports. That would determine whether there was, in fact, an actual defect in the chain of custody.Let's take the jacket for example, shall we?
Despite the fact that 7 different officers marked the grey jacket with their initials, only one of them (Capt. Westbrook) testified before the WC and all he could say is that some person who could have been a police officer pointed him to a jacket under a car in a parking lot. Westbrook could not identify the man and he has never been identified since. Westbrook also said that he gave the jacket to another officer, who he also could not identify and who has to date remained anonymous. In addition he failed to explain how it came to be that he was the person who submitted the grey jacket to the evidence room.
And let's not forget there were no inconsistencies in the officer's report, because there were no reports!
What do you think, mr. lawyer, is there a defect in the chain of custody or not?
Except in CT World, you can't look at 60-year-old documents and conclude the chain of custody was defective.Are you suggesting that anybody looking at the same information 60 years ago would not conclude that the chain of custody was defective?