Categorization And Admissibility Of Evidence Essay

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The legal issues in this question are the categorization and admissibility of evidence consisting of satellite photographs received via digital signal. A separate discussion of each issue will ensue. The categorisation of photographs into a specific category of evidence, though controversial and contested, remains pertinent to establish the requirements for the admissibility thereof in trials. Photographs may be categorised as a sub-category of real evidence. Real evidence, supplemented by oral testimony and/or expert testimony specifying its recognition and importance in context, is an object, a thing that itself constitutes evidence. Photographs may constitute real evidence for mistaken impairments, physical injuries, where fingerprints on a tangible photograph prove relevant to a trial or the photograph itself is a pilfered item. Section 232 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 (hereinafter referred to as the CPA) permits photographic evidence. Similarly, documentary evidence may encompass photographs. Seccombe provides that documentary evidence is written and graphic materials, thus tacitly incorporating photographs. Section 33 of the Civil Proceedings Evidence Act 25 of 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the CPEA) includes photographs in its explanation of documents. Section 221 of the CPA, which describes a …show more content…

The court in Ndiki re-asserted that evidence stemming from computers be categorised as documentary or real evidence. Specifically evidence stemming from a computer which required involvement of a person was documentary while that without any human endevour was real. Hearsay too plays a role in this categorisation. Thus the separate categorisation of this type of evidence has not been judicially

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