Evaluating the Credibility of Computer-Generated Evidence
James A. Sprowl · bepress Legal Repository · 1976
Several recent articles discuss how one goes about establishing the admissibility of such a report; this article will be confined to the narrower topic of credibility.Of course, a report that lacks credibility may be inadmissible so the two topics cannot be completely separated.A concise discussion of computer generated reports is presented in Younger, Computer Printouts in Evidence: Ten Objections and How To Overcome Them, 2 LITIGATION 28 (Fall 1975).See also Freed, Fenwick, McGonigal, et al., Mock Trial: Admissibility of Computerized Business Records, 15 JURIMETRICS J. 206 (Spring 1975) and Roberts, Practitioner's Primer On Computer-Generated Evidence, 41 U. CmI.L. REV.254 (1974).An excellent example of how one goes about laying a proper foundation for computer-generated evidence is presented in United States v. Russo, 480 F.2d 1228 (6th Cir.1973).2. In this respect, computers are much like automobile odometers and voting machines as is discussed in the text infra.If the computer has not been kept secure from all possibility of tampering it cannot be definitely determined that the information stored in the computer has not been altered.3. I am particularly grateful for the assistance I have received from J. David De-Hetre of Touche, Ross & Co.