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Re: Destruction of notes and data -921 LEGAL CHAPTER REFERENCES
Posted by:
Gerald Hurst (IP Logged)
Date: February 19, 2007 02:47PM
1. Do you say that the destruction of the original field note on any investigation is equal to the destruction of evidence?
Yes. Sometimes field notes may be the only evidence of something observed at an alleged crime scene or learned in an interview.
2. Are you aware of the FBI’s policy on the destruction of field notes after they are converted to a government form?
Yes
3. Are you saying the FBI is involved with the deliberate destruction of evidence?
Sometimes
4. Are you aware the Department of Justice has reviewed this policy and agrees with it.?
"The Department of Justice" is the primary federal criminal investigation and enforcement agency. They have an agenda that does not always comport with the search for justice.
5. Are you saying the Department of Justice is involved with the deliberate destruction of evidence?
Sometimes, to the extent that they do not keep a tighter rein on enforcement agency policies
6. Are you aware the Federal Court system has examined this policy and has no problem with it?
The "system" does not have an opinion. Individual courts have addressed the problem many times with mixed and often complicated results.
7. Are you saying the Federal Court system is involved with the deliberate destruction of evidence?
Some individual judges (not "the system") tacitly abet prosecutors in the withholding of exculpatory evidence. Others do not.