- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
The legal situation is more complex and nuanced than the headline implies, so the article is worth reading. This adds another ruling to the confusing case history regarding forced biometric unlocking.
Evidence is not a thing until you are at least accused of a crime or detained.
That’s not completely true. In most states if they are knocking down your door with a search warrant and you flush a kilo of heroin down the toilet, you’re getting an evidence tampering charge that will hold up in court.
They would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you only flushed it after hearing them knock on the door.
There’s a whole lot of caselaw surrounding this, and they will get someone to destroy the pipes to find out when they were flushed (their word goes, good luck finding someone impartial to say that wasn’t what happened). I wish court cases were built on 1’s and 0’s like computer code but that’s just not the way the world works.
https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/news/2011/05/27/evidence-recovery-can-be-dirty-job-police/14540952007/