“CHAIN OF EVIDENCE”

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21034, 9 February 1940, Page 4

“CHAIN OF EVIDENCE”

CRITICISM BY JUDGE TERM NOT APPLICABLE Criticism of the expression “chain of evidence” was made by Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, yesterday, when delivering a summing up to the jury. “One of the counsel has stated that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and that the Crown case could not stand on its own,” said His Honour. “However, the term ’chain of evidence’ is not altogether correct. for a case If not just a series of links, each wholly depending on the others. If you were to ask a policeman if he were going to forge a chain of evidence he would probably laugh at you. Policemen and detectives do not forge evidence or anything else. “Just take a case where each link of evidence were to depend on the next. Say there are six witnesses who are called upon to identify the accused. Five of them can do so. but the other cannot. Thus, as the chain is broken, the whole case could be said to have failed. As applied to evidence, the illustration of a piece of rope, in which some strands support the others, would be better.”