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CHAPTER 1: BEST PRACTICES ■
Federal Rules of Evidence (Rules 1001—1008) (Continued)
However, when an issue is raised (a) whether the asserted writing ever existed, or (b) whether
another writing,recording, or photograph produced at the trial is the original, or (c) whether other
evidence of contents correctly reflects the contents, the issue is for the trier of fact to determine as
in the case of other issues of fact.
House Committee on the Judiciary, Federal Rules of Evidence, 108th Cong., 2nd sess., 2004.Committee
Print 8.
Case Law
Case law includes Frye and Daubert challenges, appellate cases, and the plethora of
non-challenged cases.
Frye or Daubert hearings may be held as a pretrial hearing to determine the
admissibility of scientific evidence in court. The enhancement of fingerprints using digi-
tal image processing has been through three Frye hearings (Commonwealth of Virginia
v. Robert Douglas Knight, 1991; State of WA v. Eric Hayden, 1995; State of Florida v.
Victor Reyes, 2003). In each of these cases, the digital imaging technology met the
court requirements and was determined to meet the threshold requirements of Frye.
Additionally, the Hayden case was upheld on appeal in 1999. These three cases pro-
vide a strong foundation for the use of image processing techniques for image enhance-
ment in court.
Additionally, thousands of cases using digital photographs are used in court
every month throughout the United States. It is rare that a digital image is challenged
at all, and there have been no cases to date that I am aware of in which a digital pho-
tograph has been excluded solely because it is digital.
The rules of evidence and the case law regarding digital images do not prevent
legitimate challenges to the veracity of any image or to the legitimacy of any specific
adjustment, correction, or enhancement made to an image. For this reason, it is impor-
tant that anyone involved in presenting images for court use methods that will yield the
same results when repeated and use valid imaging forensic techniques.
Four Aspects of Best Practices
The four basic aspects to best practices in imaging forensics are as follows:
• Archive the original image.
• Work only on copies of the original file.
• Use only valid forensic image processing procedures.
• Ensure that all processes are repeatable and verifiable.
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