How The Humble Smartphone Camera Is Changing The Criminal Justice System

Young people are already tired of hearing their elders talk about how different life was before the Internet, so for a change, tell your kids about how different life was before smartphone cameras.  Even millennials can participate with this game, because while you used websites in the bibliographies of papers you wrote in high school, you learned to drive at a time when the cell phones you carried with you in the car in case of emergencies could only make phone calls, and using them was expensive enough that people did not make cell phone calls frivolously.  Because people take photographs and screenshots of almost everything, these days, smartphones can provide a wealth of information in criminal trials, and they can prove or disprove prosecutors’ claims even more effectively than live testimony from witnesses, which has been the cornerstone of criminal trials for centuries.  A Tampa criminal defense lawyer can help you find the images on your smartphone or someone else’s that can cast reasonable doubt on your guilt.

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words of Biased Claptrap

When possible, prosecutors and defense lawyers in criminal trials tend to make oral testimony by eyewitnesses and expert witnesses the cornerstone of their cases.  Jurors often base their verdicts at least in part on a gut feeling that a certain witness is or is not credible.  Exhibits such as photographs and other types of forensic evidence still play a role, but lawyers tend to use them as illustrations to the story told by the witnesses.

The trouble is that human memory is fallible, and even in the case of an expert witness whose credibility rests on professional knowledge instead of on accurate memories of a specific incident, lawyers and witnesses can carefully manipulate jurors into making certain associations with a witness.  Even something as simple as whether the witness wears his or her glasses on the witness stand can make a difference.

By contrast, a smartphone photo that tells when and where it was taken can prove your alibi more strongly than the testimony of a witness who claims to have seen you at approximately a certain place at approximately a certain time.  If you took a selfie at Epcot at 3:10, the prosecution can no longer convincingly argue that you shoplifted from a store at the Magic Kingdom at 3:15.

Alibi is not the only defense that you can support with images or screenshots from your phone.  For example, text messages are time stamped, so your screenshots of text messages to a family member, saying that you tripped and fell on a sidewalk can provide a different explanation for your superficial injuries, shown in a photograph, casting doubt on the prosecution’s accusations that you sustained the injuries while trying to commit a burglary.

Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven

A criminal defense lawyer can help you use the images on your phone to build your defense.  Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.

Source:

casetext.com/rule/florida-court-rules/florida-rules-of-criminal-procedure/pretrial-motions-and-defenses/rule-3200-notice-of-alibi