Hearsay Evidence...

[Dr.Evil]

electronic evidence is accepted today in the vaste majority of juridictions. Otherwise how would the cops bust all these net pedos ?

good point. but sometimes there's a difference between discoverable evidence and admissible evidence that can be used in trial. some electronic evidence can be "discovered" and used to arrest someone, but may not necessarily be used against them in trial. i'll look into e-evidence some more because you raise a good point, but since this evidence was not found on the defendent's computer, but the computer of a dead person, i think it may raise some different issues. i think at least it would be worthy of some sort of pretrial motion to supress that evidence

 

[Baby Gorilla]

Oh boy....

....the guy is charged with selling some stuff and the only evidence that he sold anything rests on the computer of a person who recently died in a drug overdose of a completely unrelated matter. the cops have a way of somewhat authenticating that my buddy was the one who wrote the things that were saved on the dead man´s computer....

Your friend needs to get a different attorney. Either a new public defender on the grounds that the one appointed is not zealously advocating for his client or just find a way to pay for a damn good private attorney.

Check out the guys at http://www.steroidlaw.com/.

The key here is "what" do the cops actually have? The problem with e-docs is what they really mean. If I was a drug pusher and said in a note file that you sold stuff for me, that's incriminating, but can it be proven true? I'm dead, you have no evidence in your life that those past events were true. Is that justification to put you in jail? I don't know how courts will see that.

Now, if you sold stuff for me and gave me written stuff I scanned and saved an image of into a computer file, that's pretty damaging, and it can be authenticated by comparing handwriting.

I think the weakness of the police's case is that they are useing evidence from a dead man's computer CLAIMING your friend did something illegal. The person who inputted that data is dead. If the cops can corroborate it independently, it's a moot point. If they can't how credible it is by itself is key.

Have your friend get a new lawyer. If he's facing serious jail time (heck, any jail time) it's worth the $$$. People with high-priced lawyers rarely go to jail compared to people with cheap or free lawyers.

 

[fifteyfive91]

Why did the police go into an accidental death victim's computer? That's what I was talking about before when I said they don't have cart blanche to get into every nook in the house. Sounds like the state has a marginal case (admissability problems) and they are hoping your friend's attorney will plea bargain. Tell your friend to get a private attorney... whatever he has to do (tell his mom he made a mistake and he doesn't want to go to jail... she'll secod mortgage the house in a minute) and get a private attorney. Public defenders have massive caseloads so they can't spend too much time on cases where their client insn't looking at long sentences (decades) or death row.