Expert Witness Read Online Free Page B

realise what they’re asking the court to believe.
    In most of the drink-drive cases with which I was involved in England I would have to point out, very politely, that some things might not seem very believable and that the magistrates might take a dim view. If a defendant pleads guilty early on, before the case gets to trial, they can often receive a reduction of as much as a third off their sentence. Some people would, however, insist on going the whole hog and, in my humble opinion, were never going to have a snowball’s chance of being found not guilty. Here is an extract from a defendant’s witness statement. He was charged with drink driving but his defence was that he had to drive because it was an emergency: I was in an emergency situation. I needed to get her home, and as my friend commenced her fit, I consumed a third pint of lager. If it was that much of an emergency, call an ambulance! I’m sure his friend would much rather know that if she has another fit, those around her will dive for their mobile phones, not think, Shit, I’ve got a full pint — that’s a bloody waste. I’ll neck it before I help her.
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    Of course there are legal definitions about what is or is not ‘evidence’; there are laws of evidence and law students are specifically taught about evidence law. I don’t propose to discuss the technicalities — there are plenty of legal text books to do that for me. Evidence to non-lawyers, though, is a differentthing entirely and confusion often occurs when people get mixed up about what is classed as evidence in court. Someone with whom I used to work in England once recounted a story to me about one of his first experiences in court. He’d used the word ‘evidence’ in his report when talking about what he’d deduced after examining whatever it was in the laboratory. The judge leaned towards him and said, ‘Young man, it is not for you to tell the court what is evidence. Evidence is what I allow to be heard by the jury in my court room. Until I allow it to be heard and accepted in my court room, what you have in your report are scientific findings and nothing more.’ That told him.
    There are all kinds of legal arguments that can be tossed about before someone is allowed to get into the witness box and give evidence, be they an expert witness or a bystander who saw a car drive off from a shooting. Even then, what a witness has to say needs to be judged to have reached certain standards before the witness can get into the witness box. Each jurisdiction has its own standards that the witness testimony must reach before it can be heard and accepted in open court. New Zealand’s recent implementation of hearsay rules has been interesting — even though a witness may have very good information to tell the court about what they heard someone say, if it doesn’t accord with the hearsay rules, it’s not allowed to be presented as part of the case.
    The moral of the story is: don’t presume that what you’ve written will be accepted as evidence. It’s only evidence if it’s accepted as such by the judge or, as often referred to in legalistic terms, the trier of fact. A scientist’s findings are exactly that — their findings. Oh, and never upset the judge — not a wise move, whichever way you look at it.

Chapter 2
Remind me again, how did I get here?
    A t the time of writing, I am 40 years old and five feet eight inches tall, with longish blonde hair. It’s going grey, but you can’t tell unless you get too close, in which case you’ll be in my personal space and I’ll have to move away. Unless I’m showing you my grey hair to demonstrate how having kids and being a full-time forensic scientist caused me to go grey overnight. I’ve always wanted to be six foot tall, but it never happened. My brother is six foot four but it’s wasted on him; he moans about being too