Every time I watch Law & Order: SVU I scream at the television when a judge throws out a piece of vital evidence. When they give a "reason" I'm like... that makes no sense. How can evidence be disqualified? It's evidence! Imagine how much more frustrating it is to learn that that happens in real life. I'm stunned. Can you imagine being the lawyer or client when you discover the smoking gun, the linchpin to the whole case is something that can't be used? Ridiculous.
Redditor u/shortbus79 wanted the lawyers of the net to share with us some stories of frustration by asking.... Prosecuting Attorneys of Reddit, what is the most incriminating evidence you've found but couldn't use?
Cycle Proof
Penn Badgley Joe Goldberg GIF by YOUGiphyMy bike was stolen, but then returned 3 days later splattered in blood including several complete clear fingerprints (I kid you not).
I called police and they couldn't run the prints because the "thief" was another tenant in my building and the bike was taken from a building on our property.
Authenticity
Lawyer, but not a prosecutor. A buddy shared an old story about this dude who was caught on video (hidden camera) receiving bribe money. Thing is, the footage wasn't authenticated properly. Dude was ultimately acquitted.
I heard this could happen, I'm not clear on the exact laws surrounding it, and I don't live in the US so it could be different for them, but I did hear that there are only certain video file types that are admissible because they can't be modified and returned to the same type. Doesn't make it a completely infallible system, and other video files are likely acceptable within reason, although they're not necessarily counted as solid evidence.
Joe
Not a prosecutor, but I remember reading about a case where a black man (I'll just call him Joe) was arrested for a murder he hadn't committed. After spending numerous years in prison, people began looking into his case because he had said the entire time he had not committed any crime.
The investigators began to find that many of the eye witness testimony was questionable to say the least and there were numerous errors the police department had made when filing the case which then called into question other evidence that had been originally presented at the first trial.
Basically at this point the investigators believed there was enough evidence to convince a court that Joe was wrongfully convicted due to numerous errors by law enforcement and the fact that many of the original "eye witnesses" later admitted they were either too far away or had an obstructed view to see who actual perp was.
However, there was ONE witness that truly believed they had seen the Joe commit the crime despite all of the errors and other eye witnesses mentioned above.
The Joe went to court several times to try and get out of prison on basis of bad evidence etc., but this one eye witness was so passionate when questioned that every single time the jury sided with the witness and Joe stayed in prison.
So despite the overwhelming evidence that Joe was wrongly convicted, and that all but one eye witness TESTIFIED that they couldn't really be sure they had seen Joe commit the crime, one eye witness was what kept him in prison. Not really incriminating evidence, but overwhelming evidence he was innocent yet the jury kept siding with one eye witness.
I can't remember if Joe ever got out, but even still, he'd been behind bars for decades at that point. If anyone can find the actual case, please link it below.
Hidden Treasure
treasure chest GIF by Archie ComicsGiphyNot a prosecutor but my wife's mom opened a letter showing her husband was hiding crap loads of money (they were going through a divorce) unfortunately because she had opened the letter addressed to someone else she couldn't use it.
Bad Parents
Not a prosecutor. But my parents were horribly abusive. Like to the point what when I was 4 days old, CPS tried to get my mother to give me up for adoption because they already had so many complaints about what they were doing to my 2 older sisters. But it didn't work out. 6 years later, they were taken before the court for child abuse and neglect. My older sisters gave testimony (I couldn't for various reasons), CPS presented their reports. Multiple complaints from neighbors, teachers, doctors, and my own grandmother. But the idiot of a judge refused to commit my parents because my mother didn't confess that my father did abuse us.
Instead they were let go and we were sent into foster care. From then on though CPS would take every child they had. All 6 of them. Fast forward almost 20 years and my mother is arrested and charged with felony child abuse with children 10 and 11. She only served 3 months because "it was all her new husbands fault". As soon as she got out, CPS immediately tried putting the girls back with her even though they knew she had a track record of abuse but it was from another state so it didn't count.
Burglary
I had this issue where my flat was broken into when I was a kid, they took everything and the worst part was we knew who it was and even asked if they took our PS1 and TV, (I was like 6 and this was many years ago) turns out they did and police couldn't do anything because of "no evidence."
The Murder
I'm a lawyer but not a prosecutor but I eat lunch and talk to other lawyers. Here is my story. There's a murder of a college girl in my town. It goes cold. Sadly, cops do what cops do, charge some random black guy that worked at the complex the murdered girl lived at. His trial is a hung jury once and second a mistrial.
Well, while he's awaiting trial for the third time, police are serving an arrest warrant on a totally unrelated person and in that dude's home they find some creepy ass shrine to dead girl. Wasn't a relative or anything. He just had tons of pictures of her on his wall. They couldn't use that and had no proof he was the real killer. Black guy's chargers were dropped. Nobody was ever convicted of her murder.
Jury Duty
nervous court GIF by South Park GiphyJury Nullification. Never let any attorney know that you know what that entails, if selected for jury duty.
Po Po Issues
Anything the police mess up and then gets suppressed. If the police violate your constitutional rights, the evidence will be suppressed from court. I've had confessions suppressed. Physical DNA suppressed. That always sucks to tell a victim their assailant is going free because of lazy police work.
The Evidence Says....
Bill Cosby GIFGiphyAs a defense attorney, I've had tons of cases where I have got evidence of my client's clear guilt suppressed because the government violated their rights.
I have no regrets. Pounds of drugs. Weapons. Videos. Confessions. DNA. All suppressed. Get your evidence legally or stop wasting the people's money, at my client's expense.
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