The chain of evidence and its weakest link

I'm not sure what happened in Connecticut that spurred Matt Davies to draw this cartoon, but I'm not going to Google for it because it really doesn't matter. My understanding is that most states, and the FBI, are in a situation where their labs are simply not equipped to handle the flow of evidence. Procedures don't take very long to complete, but they sit on the shelf for months waiting, or they aren't handled at all because other cases assume a higher priority.

There are also accusations that labs do a shoddy job because they're simply rushing to get through things rather than treating each case with the care it requires, but that's such an anecdotal accusation that I only dangle it as a possibility and not as a firm fact.

I'll assert this as a fact, though: The chain of evidence is only as strong as its weakest link, and having the technology is useless if you can't apply it.

It's also the case that you get better justice if you have better representation, and that includes both being in a position to insist that evidence be processed in a timely and appropriate manner and, when that fails, being able to contract for lab work on your own.

The kid who is accused of a crime and whose under-assistant-public-defender opens the case file for the first time the night before the trial is not going to get the same brand of justice as the guy who can hire a dream team to mount a full-court press on his behalf.

Nor is the young woman assaulted after leaving a bar on the poor side of town going to get the same brand of justice as the one whose family has the resources to hire their own investigators.

That's always going to be the case and, realistically speaking, there's only so much we can do about it.

But we should be able to do better for both those people, for that accused kid and for the victim who cooperated with police in completing a rape kit that is now sitting forgotten on a shelf at the crime lab.

One of my guilty pleasures -- and I consider most television outside of news and sports to be a guilty pleasure -- is "The First 48," a reality program based on the premise that, if you're going to solve a murder, you need to have a suspect identified within the first 48 hours after the crime occurs.

Now, it is a prosecution-friendly show. The investigators they get to follow around are cream-of-the-crop professionals and it wouldn't surprise me to hear someone who works the field say, "Well, hell, yes, if they were all like that ..." 

But, whoever's perspective it represents, the show is right on in the fact that most cases come together pretty fast and the others are hard to resolve at all. You don't need the DNA evidence to make an arrest in most cases, and you don't always need it six months later at trial.

On the other hand, if the goal is justice, then you can't just pat yourself on the back over the cases that solve themselves and write off the others as hopeless.

If the goal is justice, you need access to the necessary evidence and that means people have to pony up to create a system that keeps up with the technology.

In a perfect world, in a functioning society, this would mean both victim advocates and those who defend the accused would come together and insist that the justice system get funded so that we can make use of the evidence to get the right people into the court system and properly, fairly and appropriately adjudicated.

And, in that functioning society, the people who cry out for law and order would listen to them and would support proper funding of the system.

But I'm glad I'm not relying on that happening, either as a victim of crime or as a person falsely accused. Matt is spot-on in depicting the bottleneck that too often makes a waste of all that technology.

 

Comments

[vppeterson]

I would like to "like" this but don't see where or how to do so.

[vppeterson]

I think maybe I "liked" it from its very first appearance.

[Mike Peterson]

You're not on Facebook anymore, but, for all the annoying things about FB, I do wish there were more "like" buttons other places. But I already knew you liked your former local cartoonist's work. Stupid Gannett management!

[vppeterson]

Yes, yes, I do miss seeing Matt regularly, great stuff. Still can't believe they did that.