Audio recordings which may come from police interrogations, undercover operations, phone calls, voicemails, and private conversations are powerful evidence in criminal cases. A jury hearing a defendant’s own voice making what sounds like an incriminating statement is profoundly persuasive. But audio evidence is subject to technical limitations, authentication requirements, and legal restrictions that can make […]
Video evidence has transformed criminal prosecution. Body-worn cameras on police officers, surveillance cameras on businesses and homes, dash cameras in patrol cars, Ring doorbells, and security DVR systems capture millions of hours of footage. When prosecutors present video evidence, jurors tend to accept it as objective proof. “The camera doesn’t lie.” Except that it can. […]
Prosecutors have discovered that social media accounts are gold mines of potential evidence. Your Facebook posts, Instagram stories, Snapchat messages, tweets, TikTok videos, and even your Venmo transactions can be used to establish motive, intent, location, relationships, state of mind, and even admissions. In sex crime cases, social media evidence is often used to establish […]
When law enforcement finds illegal material on a computer or traces illegal online activity to an IP address, they typically charge the person who owns the device or pays for the internet subscription. The assumption is straightforward: it’s your computer, so it must be your activity. But that assumption is often wrong. Computers, phones, tablets, […]
Surveillance video that appears too dark, too blurry, or too small to be useful may actually contain valuable evidence for the defense. Conversely, video that the prosecution presents as clear and compelling may have been manipulated, taken out of context, or processed in ways that altered its meaning. In both situations, forensic video analysis can […]
Text messages have become one of the most common forms of evidence in criminal cases. Prosecutors use them to establish motive, demonstrate intent, contradict alibis, and, in cases like online solicitation, to serve as the very foundation of the criminal charge. When text messages appear on a courtroom screen, jurors tend to treat them as […]
Call detail records (CDRs) are one of the prosecution’s favorite tools for placing a defendant at a specific location at a specific time. The prosecutor stands in front of the jury, points to a map covered in cell tower markers, and says: “The defendant’s phone connected to this tower at 11:47 p.m. which is the […]
Prosecutors love cell phone location data. It creates the impression of scientific precision, i.e. a digital trail showing exactly where a defendant was at any given moment. Jurors see maps with colored pins and cell tower coverage areas and assume the evidence is irrefutable. It is not. Cell phone location data is far less precise […]
When law enforcement seizes a computer, phone, or other electronic device in a criminal investigation, one of the first steps is creating a “forensic image” of that device. This forensic image becomes the foundation for all subsequent analysis and ultimately for the evidence the prosecution presents against you in court. If the forensic image is […]
Your smartphone contains more personal information about you than any other object you own including your text messages, emails, photos, browsing history, GPS location data, financial accounts, medical information, and social media activity. When law enforcement seizes and searches a phone during a criminal investigation, they gain access to an extraordinary volume of private data. […]