Crime Scene Documentation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Crime Scene Documentation - Assignment Example In these cases, the accused is always acquitted as charges levelled against him/her cannot stand due to the malicious acts of the officers of destroying evidence that the court was to rely on. In the case State v. Blair 2013 Ohio 1270, the second district appellate court dismissed an indictment as a result of a law enforcement officer destroying a materially exculpatory video, which the defence was set to rely on in the case. The felony that was committed in this particular case was an assault, which was made on a law enforcement officer (Acker & Brody, 2013). There is a legal standard that is in place that bars the state from convicting the defendant in the following circumstances; if the state and in this case the prosecution together with case investigators fail to preserve â€Å"materially exculpatory evidence† or if the state acts in bad faith to destroy evidence that is potentially useful (Acker & Brody, 2013). In any scenario if the evidence involved is classified as materially exculpatory it is not the defendants duty proving that the state acted in bad faith to the court destroying the evidence however, the defendant only needs to prove to the court, it was the sole duty of the state to preserve that particular evidence despite destruction occurring either due to negligence or in bad faith (Gorelick & Solum, 2009). In so doing, the defendant has a duty to convince the court on the importance of the evidence to that particular case (Acker & Brody, 2013). This case involved a situation whereby a police officer tried to arrest a young man. The man in this case Blair tried to resist arrest as the officer had not fully explained to him the felony he had committed. The police officer decided to manhandle Blair by kicking him and choking him in order to arrest him successfully. Thus, in the process, there was a by-passer who was watching the whole incident and recorded it on his cell phone but noticing, the police