PART I LAW DEFINITION, CATEGORIES, AND SOURCES OF EVIDENCE EVIDENCE DEFINED Broadly, evidence is anything that can provide information about an incident being investigated. Evidence may come from many sources, as we will soon see. However, legal evidence is defined as “information that is admissible in court” or “trial-ready evidence.” This means that a piece of information meets a set of standards for admissibility, which we will discuss below, in Part III. CATEGORIES OF EVIDENCE Evidence used in criminal cases falls into two categories: Category 1 Crime-based evidence is relevant and reliable information about what happened — what crime was committed against whom, when, and where. Crime-based video evidence might include footage of, for example, a person being assaulted, property destruction, victim injuries, a mass grave, troops confiscating humanitarian aid, etc. Category 2 Linkage evidence is relevant and reliable information that helps prove responsibility for the crime. In other words, it helps prove who committed the crime and how they did it (e.g. individual perpetration, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, or command responsibility). This could include footage of military vehicles, uniforms, patches on uniforms, weapons, military offices, perpetrators training their forces, speeches where the suspect admits she or he was in command of the forces who perpetrated the crime, etc. FOR MORE INFORMATION International criminal tribunals prosecute the persons most responsible for crimes. These suspects are often situated far away from where the crimes occurred. Linkage evidence serves to connect the remote perpetrator to crimes on the ground. To learn more, see: “Proving Responsibility: Filming Linkage and Notice Evidence” vae.witness.org 42 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: ALL ABOUT EVIDENCE V 1.0