"People
v. Beckley, Case No. B212529 (Cal. Ct. App. June 9, 2010)
Two defendants were convicted of a gang-related homicide in this
case.
MySpace Photos: The girlfriend of one of the
defendants offered an alibi that one of the defendants was babysitting
her child at the time of the shooting. She also testified that the
defendant ceased gang involvement (at her request) after the two became
involved. In order to rebut the gang affiliation testimony, the
prosecution offered a photograph of the girlfriend flashing a gang sign -
the photograph was downloaded from the MySpace page of one of the
defendants. The prosecution relied on the testimony of the detective who
downloaded the photograph.
The court of appeals held that admission of the photograph was error
(unfortunately for the defendants, the court held that this error was
harmless). The court noted that there are two methods for
authenticating a photograph: (1) testimony of a person who was present
when the photograph was taken and (2) expert testimony that the
photograph is not "a composite and had not been faked," along with
foundational testimony. Here, neither method of authentication was
used. The court urged particular caution when it came to digital photos
and photos found on the internet:"
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator
California Closing Criminal Records
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SB-731 Automatically Sealing of Conviction and Arrest Records A social
justice bill that implements a system to prospectively and retroactively
seal conv...