Caught On Tape? Why Being Recorded Is Not Always A Sign Of Guilt
It's difficult to imagine a world that does not contain video cameras on nearly every building, vehicle, body cam, and more. You might think that video evidence of a crime is the end of the story. However, even video evidence can be fought in court. Read on to find out more.
Challenging Evidence
Part of your criminal defense lawyer's job is to identify flaws in the state's case against you. Your lawyer will request access to the evidence so that it can be reviewed prior to any plea deals or before the trial begins. Your lawyer knows that a case is built on evidence. Tearing down that evidence weakens the state's case to such a degree that your charges could be reduced or dropped altogether. Video evidence is not a sure thing. Here is how your attorney might get video evidence thrown out of court.
Blurry and Low Quality
You probably know that video quality can vary a lot. Many cameras attached to buildings and at intersections are not good for identifying people. Poor-quality video may be available from doorbell cams, residential and business cams, and more. Better videos can be seen from body cams worn by law enforcement, but they could be jerky because of the officer's movements. With poor-quality videos, you can see a person but it could be difficult to discern who the person is with any certainty. When there is a chance that the video is too poor to use, your lawyer will see to it.
Time and Date Issues
The exact time and date of an offense is extremely important. A case can be predicated on something happening on a certain day and at a certain time. Unfortunately, many time stamps on videos are incorrect. They might never have been set up correctly, or some other event caused the error. Power outages, daylight saving time changes, and even someone tinkering with the time can all cause the time to be off by minutes, hours, or even days. Videos with the wrong time stamp are useless to the state and are often not admissible in court.
Wrong Colors
A description of a suspect often may contain something about the color of the clothing, vehicle, and more. However, some videos are not good at representing colors accurately. Most low-quality cameras have a weak spot when it comes to identifying the difference between blues and greens, reds and yellows, and more. If your case hinges on the identification of a color, your lawyer can prove that the video does a poor job of representing colors and is not viable evidence.
Video evidence is only part of a case that probably contains many pieces of evidence—all of which can be discredited by a good defense attorney.
Contact a criminal defense attorney to learn more.
