Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum

Recently I was asked to assist with the defense of a murder case. Through a long, twisted, and mostly unknown series of events, someone I've never met was being held for a large bail as a suspect in a murder case. Somehow his attorney managed to obtain his computer, and wanted to find out if it corroborated the defendant's alibi.

This attorney contacted a friend of mine, who just before destroying all evidence managed to get me to answer my phone and explain what he was about to do. I made it clear that he should instead drop whatever it was he was doing, bring me the drive, and pick up some spares along the way out to see me with his daughters.

I immediately handled the evidence in such a way that even without the fancy $100,000 equipment that seems to be the cost of entry into forensics these days, I still had consistent, logical, understandable proof that what I was doing was not altering the data in any way. This is more than you get from simple bench tests with expensive devices. This is the real deal. I've been doing forensics for awhile. Chain of custody is key, but not the only technique.

And if it came down to it, the real evidence isn't even on the hard drive anyway. It's stored on millions of systems that his computer really is just the key to, and so even if the drive is altered completely, once the keys are in hand, the real evidence is insurmountable.

Last I heard the DA asked a simple question, and then dropped the case. That's science.

And science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on.