The chain of safekeeping and custody of material evidence

Abstract

In this article we address a topic of special importance for criminal science in general and for criminal procedural law in a special way. The need for the chain of safekeeping and custody of the material evidence, in any procedural scheme of criminal prosecution, the evaluation of the evidence constitutes the basis for the sentence of the courts. Hence, the chain of custody of the evidence is, among other procedural aspects, the guarantee that the principle of legality is complied with. For this reason, the theoretical and methodological considerations related to this topic are analyzed, where the undeniable importance of the institution studied is demonstrated, it should also be mentioned that we focus on a comparative study of the criminal procedural norms of Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, to analyze how the Chain of Custody of evidence is regulated in these Latin American legal bodies.