Innocent in the Dark

Toward a Duty to Preserve Biological Evidence in Chilean Criminal Justice

Abstract

Preservation of biological evidence can profoundly impact criminal justice as it can be essential to establish the innocence of a convicted person and thus make evident a miscarriage of justice. The paper provides information and insights regarding the State’s duty to preserve biological evidence in criminal justice, thus improving accessibility issues in the post-conviction review in Chile. In doing so, the paper looks beyond Chile’s borders and seeks to obtain lessons from the U.S. States’ preservation statutes. The research uses law comparison to assess and comprehend the appropriateness of Chilean regulation and then to identify areas for improvement in the criminal justice system.