Opinion ID: 1924363
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Bad Faith Destruction of Evidence

Text: The defendant next argues that the trial justice erred in failing to find that the police and correctional officers acted in bad faith when they destroyed Officer Dennett's uniform and the Styrofoam cups confiscated from defendant's cell. The defendant's argument, however, is entirely without evidentiary support. As previously stated, the correctional officers and the State Police officers who testified at trial agreed that it was not either agency's procedure to preserve uniforms soiled with bodily fluids. Furthermore, the remedy for the state's decision to destroy this evidence was an instruction on the law of spoliation, which no one disputes was properly presented to the jury by the trial justice. [5] The jury was free to accept defendant's spoliation argument or to reject it if it felt insufficient evidence was presented to support his allegation. Therefore, defendant's argument fails.