As some may know, currently there is a big deal going on about whether pitcher Roger Clemens used steriods. His trainer claims to have needles and gauze pads from 2003 that he used, which prove he used steriods, ashtey have his blood and remnants of the drug on them.
My question- is it be possible for testing to be done on a five year old needle that could definitively tell whether a needle was used to inject a certain drug into a certain person? And if a person wanted to make it seem as though it did if it didn’t, could tests determine the attempted fraud?
Not looking to debate whose lying here, just whether there exists such a test that could prove one way or the other.
Even if the science is good enough to detect the DNA and drug on the needle, it seems like this would come down to a evidence chain-of-custody issue.
When they are testing a blood spot for DNA, the result rests upon the testimony of the officers who were at the scene and the officer who collected the sample as well as crime scene photos and the remainder of the custody chain until the day in court.
Such a chain of custody and testimony minimizes risks of tampering.
If some dude with an ax to grind magically produces a needle from years ago, the testimony and chain of custody issues are troubling.
The trainer/injector is a former cop, and since he knew what he was doing was illegal, he says he saved it in case he ever got in trouble for it and the client turned on him, which the client did. I have read this case has some similarities to the Alger Hiss case.
But you still have the problem of a guy with a strong motivation to tamper with the evidence having the evidence in his own custody for years. Its contribution to the whole court case is weakened substantially by this, no?
Yes, that’s the point I was trying to get it- could you tell by studying it that it was tampered with after the fact? Or does the technology exist that someone could study the needle and be able to say unequivocally that yes, this needle was used to inject this drug into this persons buttocks five years ago, regardless of character or intent?