Chain of custody

Chain of custody…

The chain of custody is a procedure in which should be followed within every single criminal investigation. This procedure prevents any evidence (exhibits) being lost, tampered with or destroyed as there is detailed documentation of where this was found, what it is, when it was collected, what type of evidence it is, the measurements of the item, who collected it and the crime scene number assigned to that specific investigation. There is always a paper trail of a piece of evidence if this procedure has been followed accurately. When a SOCO collects any evidence it should be bagged and labelled in the correct manner and then handed to the exhibits officer. This officer may have a mass amount of evidence from different investigations however are all labelled minimising any chance of them misplacing evidence. The evidence is kept within a secure building which prevents an individual from removing or tampering the evidence. If the evidence is sent off for testing and analysing the exhibits officer should accurately document the details of when the evidence was dispatched and where it is going. By doing this the officers know exactly where that piece of evidence is at all times.

Chain of custody within the OJ Simpson case…

Within the murder investigation of Nicole and Ronald this procedure was carried out however not efficiently. Some of the items were logged into the chain of custody however evidence was appearing within the forensic laboratories without being logged in or even documented previously. This occurred with many blood samples, only a few blood swabs where logged into the chain of custody by the SOCO’s however later officers and detectives where giving the forensic scientists blood samples supposedly from the scene however not documented anywhere. This situation allowed for the defence to argue again that the evidence could have been placed containing Simpson’s DNA.