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Evidence tamper by the criminal prosecutor

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Deb1972

New member
What is the name of your state? Houston, TX

Can evidence tamper by the criminal prosecutor a good reason to request an appeal in conviction and sentencing case?

In this case, the prosecutor crops a photo then presented it to the judge and the trial jury. Is it legal?
Then he concealed the evidence for almost two years before presenting it to the court?

Thank you.
 


quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Houston, TX

Can evidence tamper by the criminal prosecutor a good reason to request an appeal in conviction and sentencing case?

In this case, the prosecutor crops a photo then presented it to the judge and the trial jury. Is it legal?
Then he concealed the evidence for almost two years before presenting it to the court?

Thank you.
How did the photo-cropping alter the photo? What was cropped out?
 

Deb1972

New member
The other person cropped out of the photo committed the offense which he pleaded guilty to. The photo crop was used to intentionally mislead the court
 

quincy

Senior Member
The other person cropped out of the photo committed the offense which he pleaded guilty to. The photo crop was used to intentionally mislead the court
That was probably not the intent.

What did the photo show? A photo of two people on its own is not evidence of much of anything.
 

zddoodah

Active Member
Evidence tampering is an issue that needs to be raised at trial with the judge presiding over the trial. That judge will make a ruling one way or the other. If the defendant is convicted, then the judge's ruling on the evidence tampering issue could be a basis for an appeal.


In this case, the prosecutor crops a photo then presented it to the judge and the trial jury. Is it legal?
There's nothing inherently wrong with cropping photos. If a photo has been cropped and the defendant wants to put the uncropped photo into evidence, he/she can seek to do that.


Then he concealed the evidence for almost two years before presenting it to the court?
Despite your use of a question mark, this sentence is not a question. If you intended a question, I cannot discern what you intended to ask. If there's a question here, you'll want to provide the relevant facts and ask a clear question.
 

Deb1972

New member
Thank you for all the responses.

Was the prosecutor required to mentioned the cropped photo to the defense attorney as a piece of evidence before the trial?.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Thank you for all the responses.

Was the prosecutor required to mentioned the cropped photo to the defense attorney as a piece of evidence before the trial?.
Not necessarily. How apparent was it that the photo was cropped?

What was it about the photo as a whole that the prosecutor believed was good evidence? How did the cropping of the photo change the impression given by the whole photo?

In other words, what difference did the photo-cropping have to the case?
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
Thank you for all the responses.

Was the prosecutor required to mentioned the cropped photo to the defense attorney as a piece of evidence before the trial?.
Depends on what use the prosecutor intended to make of the photo and how the discovery process went. In general the prosecutor should have provided to the defense an uncropped version of the photo before trial unless the photo was to be used for impeachment/rebuttal.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Who are you in this matter, Deb1972?

Why was the prosecutor back in court with the photo two years later?
 

quincy

Senior Member
Hopefully Deb1972 will return before Caveman appears, to fill in some details by answering the questions that have been asked.
 

CavemanLawyer

Senior Member
Yeah definitely not enough information to address this. Others have already pointed out the questions that still need to be answered. I'm really unclear on what the cropping accomplished and how it would be misleading. Please just tell us what happened. Prosecutors crop photos and videos all the time to present their case according to their strategy. Defense attorneys can do the same. As long as both sides are working from the same original evidence its just something for each to argue about to the jury.

Also wondering if the defense had the original photo or had a basis of knowledge that this other person was in the photo. (ex: If the photo showed the defendant and this other person standing next to each other its hard to argue defense didn't know other person was in the photo because Defendant was there.)

Has there already been an appeal or has the time to file an appeal lapsed? If there was an appeal was this issue raised in it? I'm guessing that the time to appeal has expired and this would have to be raised in an 11.07 writ. Rather than post any more I'll just wait for more information.
 

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