Discussion 2

The United States v. Dioguardi

428 F.2d 1033, 1038 (C.A.N.Y. 1970).

At least, a minimum standard of trustworthiness must be established to eliminate the theory of accuracy, the integrity of computer used to generate evidence, and the admissibility of such records in court. The original contents of free and fair evidence are deep-rooted in writing panache, recording, and photograph required by court standards to ensure that court decisions are based on reliable, and authentic evidence. The advent of photocopiers, scanners, related technology that can be used to create identical acceptable duplicates in place of the original and in the market.  A genuine question on the authenticity of the original and accuracy of a photocopy could be unfair to accept in place of the original. Presenting a copy of digital evidence is usually more desirable because it eliminates the risk that the original copy being unintentionally altered.

A paper printout of a digital document may be considered equivalent to the original unless essential portions of the original are not visible in printed format. Hearsay Digital evidence cannot be admitted in court if the author of the evidence is not present to verify and authenticate the evidence's integrity. Computers is an electronic device can be programed to store and output information with limited human intervention; hence, the computer system can initiate the hosting, emitting errors and uncertainty in various ways in any location and at any time. Digital evidence is generally a suggestive of human activities; for example, the system clock on a computer can be incorrect, and date-time stamps can be misinterpreted. Furthermore, the source internet protocol (IP) address on network traffic may be assigned to a proxy device rather than the actual originating computer.

Scenario:   A genuine question on the authenticity of the original and accuracy of the photocopy of an evidence could be unfair to admit in place of the original copy.  Furthermore, presenting a photocopy of digital evidence is usually more desirable because it eliminates the risk of original being unintentionally altered. As an organization lead forensic investigator, which of this conclusive evidence will you present in court:

1. Provide a comprehensive narrative on the importance of the original copy of the evidence in court?


2. Provide a comprehensive narrative on the incongruity of a photocopy of evidence in place of the original copy in court?