Examining the Use of Technology in Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Practices

What Part Do Tech Advances Play in Criminal Defense?

As society changes at breakneck speed with the advancement of technology, all areas of daily life are connected through social media, digitalization, and computer software, to name a few significant technological spaces. Criminal defense work is one area where technology plays a huge role in expanding investigative and informational spaces. New tools in criminal defense allow lawyers and clients to expedite communication and case preparation. Most current communication tools, like emails, texts, voice mail, video communication, and other virtual apps, are available at the tap of a keyboard or button. Communication is nearly instantaneous, and real-time videography allows for expediency in attending some court hearings and appearances, especially for distant witnesses.

Even criminal justice work in law enforcement, with body cameras, facial recognition technology, GPS tracking, drones, gunshot detection, robotics, and thermal imaging, presents new opportunities and challenges for criminal defense attorneys. In some ways, technology allows for greater accuracy in identifying and incriminating criminal suspects. Still, in others, it leaves doors to challenging the accuracy or maintenance of such technology as criminal evidence in a courtroom. Here, our New Jersey criminal defense attorneys examine the use of technological advancements in criminal law, including its transformational influence, the increasing importance of digital evidence and surveillance, and the ways in which our experienced criminal defense team employs tech inside and outside of the courtroom in order to provide the best defense to our clients. To discuss your unique criminal matter with one of our attorneys, simply contact us anytime for a free consultation.

The Interplay of Technological Innovations in Criminal Prosecution and Defense

Many technological innovations in criminal defense pose advantages and challenges to the defense team.

How Prosecutors Use Digital Evidence Against Defendants and Problems with Privacy and Admissibility

Digital evidence includes direct messages, emails, texts, and social media posts that may show motive, plans, or criminal activity. So, posted photos, videos, and likes may show a pattern of someone fascinated by violence, drugs, or pornography, for example. They may also reveal possible accomplices to a crime. Other potential problems for defendants are their social media posts, texts, and emails that may incriminate them. People do not anticipate their digital communications will be used against them in a criminal court, yet the rules of evidence may present special problems of privacy and admissibility.

One of the challenges of using technology in criminal defense work is how reliant most people are on digital communication. People text, email, video chat, and post on social media, the last of which is often immediately accessible to a prosecutor. While defendants do not realize they are an investigation target, the police are gathering digital evidence for the prosecutor to use against them. However, privacy challenges to evidentiary admissibility may prevent prosecutors from using some digital communication evidence in court.

GPS and Location Tracking to Put Someone at the Scene of a Crime or Refute the Prosecution’s Story

Regarding the location of crimes and criminal suspects, GPS and IP address tracking can locate a person at a specific time and location. This kind of evidence can help the defense refute prosecution information and help the prosecution establish a defendant’s location when a crime occurs.

Duality of Body Camera Evidence

Body cameras may record an arrest, which could incriminate a suspect on the one hand. On the other hand, when the body camera begins and ends recording, it is critical to analyze its context and weight as evidence. Also, whether the body camera is on during the arrest matters. A criminal defense attorney may point out the suspicious nature of turning on a body camera late into the arrest, stopping it early, or not turning it on to raise doubt about the integrity of the footage, or lack of footage in proving that a defendant committed a crime.

Upsides and Downsides of Surveillance Footage

Similarly, camera surveillance footage can help the defense or the prosecution. Security videos and police cameras on the dash or body can reveal what occurred when police investigated a crime and made an arrest. They can also be called upon to show that the suspect does not match the defendant’s characteristics or appearance. Sometimes, this footage is too unclear to truly prove the prosecutor’s assertions beyond a reasonable doubt, which may lead to a not-guilty verdict.

Facial Recognition Software for Identification or Furthering Bias

In addition, police investigations are enhanced by AI-produced facial recognition software to identify suspects, but there are a host of issues with these technological tools. Likewise, “predictive policing” programs can use collected data to predict crime. However, AI feeds off images and data from human input, which includes human biases.

Introduction of Wearables Information as Evidence in Court

Additionally, data from medical wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices that record vitals or environmental readings through sensors can be helpful to both sides of the criminal case. Such data supports a defendant’s alibi, assists investigations of crime scene conditions in arson cases, or implicates a crime participant with vitals data, such as heart rate and temperature at a certain time and place.

Latest Techniques for Advanced Investigation and Strategic Representation by the Criminal Defense Team

Using Modern Tech for Defense Investigation

When defense attorneys conduct criminal investigations, they may use technological tools to locate evidence critical to the defense beyond what the prosecution discloses. Forensic and location-tracking software helps in the defense’s investigation and evidence search. For example, data analysis algorithms can assist an attorney in locating evidence in phone records, social media, and other electronic tracking and online data.

Another advantage of most technologies is their capacity to gather and analyze large volumes of records, evidence, and data more accurately than humans can. So, a defense attorney can amass all relevant evidence pertinent to a defendant’s case, such as fingerprints, DNA data, surveillance footage, and other items, to more efficiently understand how the evidentiary pieces will pan out in front of a jury and plan accordingly. Such tools can streamline investigation and trial strategies. Also, a criminal defense attorney can use the same digital data, social media posts, texts, and emails to discredit witnesses or disqualify jurors for bias.

Employing Research Tools to Assemble and Analyze Information

Such technologies also assist in researching with artificial intelligence. Criminal defense attorneys can now research more broadly with the aid of AI, tracing beneficial arguments and developing more pointed strategies. AI and other technologies are made to save time. A criminal defense lawyer who saves time researching, analyzing, and managing documents with AI has time to thoughtfully strategize a criminal defense.

Raising Issues with Chain of Custody or Evidence Reliability

Furthermore, the reliability of Internet evidence is a problem when a prosecutor must establish the link between the defendant and the Internet data, known as the chain of custody. If the evidence is subject to change or falsification by intervening parties, it is not reliable as evidentiary proof. Moreover, AI can create false images that look like photographs, so these images may be called into question by the defense.

Challenging Evidence that Violates a Defendant’s Rights

Finally, computer-generated data and analysis prove challenging for law enforcement to justify probable cause. Computer-based “evidence” using AI software may challenge the prosecution to establish that an investigation or roadside stop is justified by probable cause. Moreover, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution grants a defendant the right to cross-examine witnesses against them at a criminal trial. Hence, a computer’s establishment of probable cause deprives the defendant of their right to cross-examine their accusers.

Recognizing the Need for Cautious Employment of New Technologies when Defending Clients

While the ease and time-saving benefits of using advanced technologies in criminal defense work are beneficial, the evidentiary challenges and reliance on computers may waste more time at trial and create more burdens in double-checking the accuracy of data collection analytics. Ultimately, a human being (the criminal defense attorney) must use the data to create a defense strategy based on human motivations, intentions, and tendencies. Many cases boil down to the defense painting a sympathetic portrait of a human being in specific circumstances and sometimes, by showing the prosecution’s witnesses as biased and discreditable, either through lack of consistency, unreliability, or unsavory motivations. So, while technology helps, the human factor in personalizing a defense to a particular defendant and each component of the evidence and others involved is essential.

Thus, an attorney who is up on the latest technologies can assist their client with computer-assisted investigations, data analyses, support for cross-examinations of witnesses, and key information to disqualify jurors to maximize a defense advantage. Most importantly, however, tech can help craft a storyline that promotes the defendant’s innocence and casts doubt on the prosecution’s charges. A criminal defense attorney is the orchestrator of sometimes massive amounts of tangible and intangible information that they can shape and make real, emotionally, physically, and psychologically to a jury. No matter what, it is important to have a criminal defense attorney with the knowledge, skill, experience, and commitment to putting each client’s needs first.

Talk to a Criminal Defense Lawyer with a Human Approach to Your Case in Southern NJ

Be sure to contact a criminal defense attorney at Proetta, Oliver, & Fay to ensure that you are aided by the optimal defense counsel and representation. Our criminal lawyers are well-versed in the technological advantages of modern tools and techniques when building a defense. If you face criminal charges in Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, and surrounding areas of Southern New Jersey, we stand ready to show your innocence or the state’s overrunning your rights in the criminal investigation and prosecution. Call 609-850-8284 to speak with a member of our team in a no cost, confidential consultation.