Q: What is chain of evidence? Is this important?
A: Two solid Yes to the questions! Chain of evidence basically refers to the sequencing of evidences found following to this order:- identification,collection,analysis,storage, preservation, transportation, presentation in court and return to owner/ next of kin. In short, it includes where, when and what the evidence was retrieved from. Also, the chain of people that have handled the evidence are also included in the long description list. This being said, the concept is SUPER important because without the proper chain of evidence executed, the evidence could be contaminated, and resulted from test failure, and more importantly, could be invalidated by the judge and jury. On top of that, this is very important as some crimes could have gone cold yet have not passed the Statute of allegation/Prosecution. The contaminated evidence would not help if in any of the cold case.