(DOWNLOAD) "Introduction to Handwriting Examination and Identification" by Russell R. Bradford & Ralph B. Bradford ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Introduction to Handwriting Examination and Identification
- Author : Russell R. Bradford & Ralph B. Bradford
- Release Date : January 01, 1992
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,Reference,Writing,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 134372 KB
Description
Albert Sherman Osborn, “The Dean of Document Examiners,” wrote in 1940 that during the previous sixty to seventy years (1870–1940) there developed in this country a distinctly new profession, “The Scientific Examination and Proof of Handwriting and other Facts relating to Documents.”1
This chapter is divided into seven periods in the history of this new profession, which is called Document Examination.
Origins of Handwriting Examination, ?—1869 Pioneering Period, 1870–1931 The Lindbergh Kidnap Case, 1932–35 A New Profession, 1936–41 Modern Period, 1942–69 Howard Hughes Period, 1970–78 The 1980s, 1990s, and Beyond
Forgery has been practiced from earliest times, in every country. In ancient Rome, Marc Antony forged decrees and other documents, and the Emperor Titus was regarded as the greatest and most skillful forger of his time.
The rule for the identification and comparison of handwriting was clearly expressed in the Code of Justinian, Order 49, Title IV, chapter II, enacted in A.D. 539:
Comparison of handwriting shall only be made in the case of public documents, and in the case of private instruments where the adverse party can use them to his own advantage.... For we entertain hatred for the crime of forgery. We order that experts charged with the comparison of the handwriting of public documents shall be sworn before any private instruments are placed in their hands for this purpose. Wherefore this law, as well as the present modification of the same, shall remain in full force, and experts aforesaid shall by all means be sworn.2
In early English law, expert testimony was unknown. For many years, “comparison of hands” was not allowed, and only a witness who had knowledge or had witnessed the writing was allowed to testify. The Colonel Algeron Sidney trial, reported in nine Howell’s State Trials 818 (1683), was one of the early reasons for these objections to the comparison of hands. The writing was compared by the jury, and Sidney was convicted and executed in 1684. The evidence consisted of proving the book was produced to be Colonel Sidney’s writing, because “the hand was like what some of the witnesses had seen him write.” The conviction was declared null and void in 1689, because the mere “similitude of handwriting” in the two papers shown to the jury, without concurrent testimony, was not evidence that both were written by the same person.