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Forensic evidence in criminal investigations
Chapter 4 forensics and criminalistics
Forensic evidence in criminal investigations
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My homicide case began when the Shreveport Police Department (SPD) received a call from a male caller via 911 reporting he found a body of a black male found in a park near a cul-de-sac in a residential area. I was dispatched and responded to the scene. Upon arrival, I began steps documenting the crime scene. I initiated a rough sketch of the scene and initiated my field notes. A cordon was initiated as I began identifying possible evidence and identifying witnesses and suspects. I canvassed the area and found four 9mm shell casings near the body. The city coroner was contacted and responded to the scene. The coroner identified the deceased as 23 year-old Rod Dixon. The coroner inspected the victim and relayed he was shot four times at close range. I made contact with a witness who stated he saw four black men in the park last night. The method I would use to find the suspect (s) in the shooting began with the witnesses accomplishing written statements on what they saw or heard and look at a lineup of photos to help identify the suspects. …show more content…
A witness, utilizing a photo lineup, were able to identify the four young men seen that night in the park.
After contacting and interviewing all three suspects, we discovered the suspects killed the victim during a argument over a gun that had been used in an earlier robbery. Ballistics from a gun discovered in a inspection found one of the suspect suspects matched the weapon used in the shooting. The suspects were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The case was closed and this concludes my summary of my
case.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze the practices conducted by law enforcement during the investigation of the murder of Ashley Smith. The following pages will discuss the crime scene investigation, the evidence collection, the investigative steps following the initial crime scene investigation, the interviews of witnesses and suspects, and other strategies performed by the acting case investigators. Constitutional challenges have surfaced regarding specific pieces of critical evidence and a section of this paper will analyze the admissibility of this evidence. Lastly this case’s law enforcement processes will be contrasted with textbook processes in an effort to determine the validity of the case’s outcome.
Ever since the start of using courts, the main goal of it was to deliver a fair environment where the accused could defend themselves and show the jurors that he/ she did not commit the crime that they were accused of. Sometimes this system fails us and they sentence an innocent man to jail for something they didn’t commit. The activity that I observed in the field of criminal justice was I went to the boulder court house and watched one of the cases that’s was happening that day. As I sat there watching I saw the defendant’s lawyer trying to convince the jurors that his client was innocent, I thought to myself: how can we improve the court room. Sometimes we see some cases where the criminal can be let go because of not a lot of evidence like Casey Anthony. We also might see that the case might be unfair to person being convicted of a crime that they didn’t do. An example of this is the jurors have some past experience with a person of that race and they don’t like them or they already come with a decision before they even hear the evidence found. We might also see a case where the jurors decide that the accuser is innocent even though there’s evidence that proves otherwise. The main point is how we can make
we do not know who the murderer is and what motive they have to murder
I feel that the wounds explain what happened in a story in a wrongful death, it all depends on the wounds and where and when the victim was shot. From the direction of the gunshot; the wounds of Mr. Jones indicate that he was shot in the back and he never saw the suspect coming towards him with a gun, because his back was turned to the suspect. According to Orthman, Hess, “The victim’s background provides information about whether the death was an accident, suicide or homicide. If a homicide, the background often provides leads to a suspect. Evidence on the victim’s body can also provide important leads.” (Orthman, Hess, 2013).
The third case was a very strange case. Troopers found the body of an insurance salesman that had been missing for some time. The strange part was that the man was shot twice but there was no evidence left at all. There was no bullet casings or any fingerprints. The only thing they had was that they could tell the bullet holes were made by a shotgun and the tire tracks of a car. They questioned the man’s wife but still no clues were found. Then a few days later the police got an anonymous call giving a description of the man who had been talking about killing this man and where he worked. The men who killed the man were brought in and they confessed to the murder.
The police arrived at a 911 call of a possible suicide. Two lovebirds had been walking along a bridge over the Arkansas River when they spotted an odd shape below. Upon further investigation, they realized it was a body. The police suspected it might have been a suicide, but the coroner who arrived shortly after they had noticed bruises on the wrists, pointing to foul play. Everything was photographed and mapped out in case it became relevant. The body was bloated and decomposed, meaning it had been in the river for a while. No identity was determined because of how long the deceased had been gone. All they knew was the deceased was a male adult and most likely Caucasian. All the evidence collected at a scene was transported to
What is homicide and what are homicidal offenses? Homicide has been defined as the taking of the life of one human being by another. Homicidal offenses vary by degrees of the offense, penalties, and manor in which the offense occurred. These offenses include: First-Degree Murder, Second-Degree Murder, Felony, Justifiable and Excusable Homicide. These are some of the main topics and can be broken down into subcategories within and amongst themselves. Some of the earliest recorded cases of murder date back to the 12th century with the King’s Bench or Queen’s Court in England; we will cover some of the earliest establishments of these laws and/or cases in history.
On the day of June 20, 2000, a family of five, husband, wife, and three children, was awaken by two masked men. Earlier that morning the two bandit had just robbed a grocery store leaving the owner and one of the worker died. Little did the robbery know there was an another employee in the store. That employee was in the bathroom and once he heard the shot he called 911. He alert the dispatcher that two gunmen as in the store and that he believe the owner and the other employee had been shot. The dispatcher radio the information out to her officer. Officers arrived to the scene and discovered two bodies on the floor. The surviving employee was rescue and was able to describe the vehicle the gunmen had left in. Some officer remain at that scene
In a sudden moment of panic the homeowner and father grabbed a knife, which was close by and began to stab continually one of the home invaders, the other two culprits ran by the time the police got there, but the individual that was stabbed was bleeding out in one of the rooms which they had entered. Based on what the officer told me, he first made sure that both parties where separated from each other and the area is taped up so that no one may enter and disturb any evidence that may have been left behind by the other two culprits, he then went on to interview and ask questions to the victims. Some of those common questions he asked where, what had occurred, if they where able to identify the other two subjects, if they knew them personally or recognized them in any way, & what where they doing prior and after the incident. He then proceeded to first calling the CSI, and detective officer to the scene, also the rescue for the injured culprit. He further began to
What is murder; the killing of a human being by a sane person, with intent, malice aforethought (prior intention to kill the particular victim or anyone who gets in the way) and with no legal excuse or authority. In those clear circumstances, this is first degree murder. By statute, many states consider a killing in which there is torture, movement of the person before the killing (kidnapping) or the death of a police officer or prison guard, or it was as an incident to another crime (as during a hold-up or rape), to be first degree murder, with or without premeditation and with malice presumed. Second degree murder is such a killing without premeditation, as in the heat of passion or in a sudden quarrel or fight. Malice in second degree murder may be implied from a death due to the reckless lack of concern for the life of others (such as firing a gun into a crowd or bashing someone with any deadly weapon). Depending, on the circumstances and state laws, murder in the first or second degree may be chargeable to a person who did not actually kill, but was involved in a crime with a partner who actually did the killing or someone died as the result of the crime.
This paper explores the process and procedures of a police officer when it comes to working a crime scene investigation. Although there are multiple police departments just inside Cobb County, all have the same basis for working a crime scene and procedure for the timeline of jobs to be completed on a crime scene. In the book Criminal Investigation (Swanson, Chamelin, Territo, & Taylor, 2012), chapter three covers the crime scene investigation process of three characters: the police officer, criminal investigator and the crime scene technician. This paper will strive to outline and detail the job of the police officer. According to the book Criminal Investigation (Swanson et al., 2012), there is a specific timeline for a police officer that
A case is presented about a company who has hired a supervisor from another subsidiary in the company. In an open department meeting, the system department manager described a concern that promotions were given based on likeability not work quality. The new supervisor met privately with the assistant department manager and exclaimed that she would not accept individuals that are not team players. She requested the managers’ names and expressed if he did not provide information about anyone hurting the company, that he would be considered part of the problem. The following analysis will explore ethical issues from the justice perspective of the assistant manager, supervisor, the company, and stakeholders. Various alternatives will
I arrived on scene at approximately 4:19 p.m. and made contact with Detective D. Johnson and Detective J. Littlejohn from the Homicide Unit. I then conducted an initial walk-through of the residence and noticed the following.
The case scenario that I will be using for this essay is about the murder case of Jeevitha d/o Panippan, the girlfriend of Pathip Selvan s/o Sugumaran, who is also known as “Marsiling Baby”. The accused, Pathip, was 22 years old at the time of event, and the deceased Jeevitha, was 18 years old. This case revolved around the relationship of these “actors” and which involved conflict, which lead to the outcome, murder. To analyse this case scenario, I will be using the ‘Multi-causal Role Model’. Conflicts have their roots in various conditions such as socioeconomic, and international conditions. There is usually a “syndrome of factors” that leads to violence. Through this model, I aim to trace casual systems, patterns to recognize the distinctive quality and part of different elements that prompt the conflict; to investigate both the substance and the elements of conflict and to facilitate the area
First, a police officer a single detective should never be left in charge of a crime scene that large, especially not for 3 hours, detectives should have been dispatched immediately to the scene, if they needed help other departments would have been willing to assist.