Regular readers know that I have a particular interest in the intersection of new technologies and criminal law. But I am not the only person at the School of Government interested in this topic. My colleague Cheryl Howell recently taught a session on electronic evidence — essentially, how the rules of evidence apply to things like text messages, blog posts, and documents seized from computers.
If you’ve ever wondered “how do I authenticate this text message?” or “is this printout of an email really the ‘best evidence’ of the contents of the email?” you should check out Cheryl’s materials. (If you haven’t ever though about those questions, Cheryl’s materials will help you start.) Here is her brief outline of the issues, complete with case citations. Here is a set of discussion questions and answers that she prepared.
If that isn’t enough to quench your thirst for knowledge, the cyb3rcrim3 blog (goofy spelling theirs, not mine) has a post today on the authentication of blog posts. Here’s hoping none of my posts ever need to be authenticated.
