Question

When does chain of custody begin and when does it end?

Answer 1

• The concept of “chain of custody” is part of the method for authenticating “real evidence.” The purpose of this requirement is to establish that (1) the evidence is what it purports to be, by making sure that (2) anyone who might have had the opportunity to alter it is brought into the proceeding for examination.
• Thus, say a police investigator finds a bag of drugs in a house. The bag, or a sample of it, is sent out to a lab for positive identification. The item is then put into a police evidence locker. The defendant is charged with its possession, and called for trial the better part of a year later.
• If the prosecution want to use this item as evidence in the trial, they will need to establish when the item was discovered, by whom, and to track its movements (as well as that of the sample sent to the lab) to stave off protestations that “you can’t prove that’s the same stuff that was in my house.”
• The “chain” thus will begin with the person who discovered the evidence, and end with the person who brings the evidence into the courtroom. Gaps in the chain may result in the evidence being ruled inadmissible.Real evidence is the bag of drugs in this hypothetical situation.