VIII · Missing Original Note

Argument · 8 of 17

VIII. The Original Note Was Not Produced

The State claims that a text at 11:00 p.m. instructed Twiggs to look underneath a keyboard. Twiggs said he found a note, photographed it and returned it to the desk. He did not produce the original note. The State presented the photograph found on Twiggs’s phone. Source: rev.com Agent Davis called it a handwritten note “from Tyler to Lance.”

When asked how he knew that, he did not cite:

handwriting analysis;
fingerprints;
DNA;
paper examination;
ink dating;
an eyewitness to its creation;
or recovery of the original.

He answered that Twiggs told investigators about it and identified it. Source: rev.com That is not independent authentication. It is Twiggs authenticating evidence supplied by Twiggs.

The original note was not available for:

handwriting comparison;
latent-print examination;
DNA testing;
ink examination;
paper-source comparison;
indentation analysis;
or verification of physical possession.

The Court received a digital image. It did not receive the original alleged document.

The State’s “handwritten confession” therefore rests upon:

a photograph on Twiggs’s device, of a note Twiggs said he found, attributed to Mr. Robinson because Twiggs said it was his. That is a closed evidentiary circle.

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Coverage of the Note ExhibitNews summary of the note photograph and its contents as introduced at the hearing.