SEARCHING HARD DRIVES IN THE ANTHONY TRIAL

Robert Hilson wrote about the Anthony trial for the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. ¹ You’re probably asking what E-Discovery has to do with a murder trial and if you are a criminal defense attorney your probably asking, “What is E-Discovery?”

We do not need the Anthony trial to learn that criminal defense attorneys can no longer evade the use of E-Discovery. Not too many years ago, with the possible exception of a major wiretap case criminal defense attorneys did not use E-Discovery. Now we have discovery coordinators and E-Discovery specialists who, using complicated programs, guide us through the world of E-Discovery. We use expert witnesses to perform complicated tests and to explain this world to juries.

In the Anthony trial a forensic technologist testified about the process used to trace Casey Anthony’s internet searches for terms like chloroform. Despite efforts to delete the searches, little can be hidden and experts in the field can search the hard drive. Certainly knowing that Anthony may have used the computer to find ways to kill her daughter not only points the finger at her but helps to disprove claims that the death was accidental. ²Her attorneys point out that while forensic technologists can find out what was searched on the computer they cannot prove that Anthony was the one who performed the search.