Report Writing and Presentation of Evidence in Court

At this stage in the investigation is where all the information gathered throughout the entire investigation is compiled into a case file and prepared for presentation in court. This case file contains information regarding any previous convictions a suspect may have and a general overview of the case written by the officer who is dealing with the case. This Case file also contains witness statements, an itemised list of evidence and exhibits such as photograph and also an analysis of any forensic evidence. This case file is used by the prosecution in court, against the defendant who is the suspect of the crime which has occurred.

When presenting evidence in court the prosecution (CPS in the United Kingdom), always presents their evidence first, and then the defence will follow, presenting their case. In a Court case after both the prosecution and defence have presented their evidence they both summaries their case and the Judge and Jury make a final decision on the outcome of the case.

In the OJ Simpson Case the process described above occurred in court. However due to the poor evidence collecting procedures – the blood samples of both Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were put in the same bag with the blood sample which turned out to be Simpson’s blood. Therefore all of this evidence was contaminated and could not be used by the prosecution. Another argument that surfaced within the trial, which helped to lead to the acquittal of Simpson was, that the amount of blood drawn from Simpson to compare the samples taken from the crime scene could not be confirmed. However the nurse was convinced that he had drawn 8cc’s, however when the evidence was turned into the Los Angeles Police department the vial only contained 6.5cc’s of Simpsons Blood. This led the defence to argue that the blood which was not found during the preliminary investigation, but was discovered afterwards on the gate of Nicole Browns House was planted by an officer in an attempt to frame OJ Simpson.

OJ Simpson was eventually acquitted of the murders of both Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, this is due to the fact that the prosecution could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was Simpson who had committed the crime. The amount of evidence which could not be used by the prosecution or that was dismissed in court due as well as other mistakes made throughout the investigation process, may have led to the jury deciding on the Not Guilty verdict for Simpson.

This therefore highlights the importance of each stage of the investigation process being carried out to high standard and following correct procedures, as if this does not occur, as in the case of OJ Simpson a potentially guilty suspect could be acquitted, or vice versa, a innocent suspect could be prosecuted for a crime they did not commit.