Preservation Of Evidence

The Value and Preservation of Evidence
Kaplan University

CJ370-01
January 16, 2012

The value of footprint or footwear evidence is heavily important. The most valuable details are signs of wear, characteristic fittings or marks of fittings that have come off, injuries, marks of nails and pegs, especially when these are irregularly placed, and repair marks. If they are particularly characteristic or occur in sufficient numbers, such details may form decisive evidence. In the interest of thoroughness, footprints should be preserved even if they do not show any details. Although the size and shape of the shoe or pattern in the heel or sole is of lesser evidential value, a representative print should nonetheless be preserved for its value
Foot impressions occur when the foot treads in some moldable material such as earth, sand, clay, snow, etc. Footprints are formed on a hard base when the foot or the sole and heel of a shoe are contaminated with some foreign matter such as road dirt, dust, flour, blood, or moisture. Footprints may also be latent when naked or stocking-covered feet on a smooth surface have formed them. Footwear impression evidence and information from the gait pattern may indicate that the subject was walking or running, had sustained an injury or walked with a limp, was possibly intoxicated, had a tendency to walk toe-in or toe-out, or was carrying a heavy object. (Fisher, Barry A.J., Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, pgs
The best way to lift a pistol or revolver is to hold it with two fingers on the checkered part of the butt, or possibly by the ring on the butt. Shotguns may conveniently be held around the checkered part of the neck of the butt; if necessary the weapon can be lifted by a steady grip with the fingers on the trigger guard. It is undesirable to lift a weapon such as a revolver or pistol, because the weapon may be cocked and a shot may be fired if the trigger happens to be touched. It should be taken as a general rule never to lift a weapon found at the scene of a crime before first making sure that no one is in the direction in which the muzzle is pointing; of course one should not risk being hit if the weapon fires while being lifted. The weapon may actually be cocked so that even the slightest movement could cause a shot to be fired. The procedure for lifting up a gun by putting a pencil or stick in the barrel is absolutely wrong. This may destroy valuable clues in the barrel that might possibly have been of use in elucidating the case. In a contact shot (i.e., when the muzzle is in contact with a body), which is common with suicide, it often happens that blood, grease, fragments of fabric, and textile fibers are blown into the barrel of the gun by the violence of gas pressure and the splash of tissue and blood in all directions. With a contact shot it has sometimes happened that these particles have