[vox-tech] .jpg Mystery

[Alex Mandel]

Bob Scofield wrote:
> I'm working for the defense on a criminal case, and have come across a 
> mystery, and am asking for help solving it.
> 
> The police have given us a photo.  The time the photo was taken is important.  
> The defense investigator's computer indicates that the photo was taken 
> at "2107."  The investigator emailed a copy of the photo to me.  My computer 
> (on both Windows and Linux) indicates that the photo was taken at "10:07 pm."  
> Thus there is a one hour difference in the times reported on our respective 
> computers.
> 
> My question is, how can a .jpg file give two different times for its date of 
> creation?  
> 
> You may not want to read what follows.  Below I explain how the investigator 
> and I got our results.
> 
> The investigator used Windows XP.  He right clicked on the .jpg and clicked 
> on "properties."  That brought up a box with three 
> tabs:  "General," "Summary," and "Details."  The date of time and creation 
> was found in the "Details" tab.
> 
> I used Windows XP.  When I right click on "properties" I get the "General" 
> and "Summary" tabs, but I do not get the "Details" tab.  All I've figured out 
> how to do it is to put the cursor over the .jpg file and a yellow box comes 
> up with the date and time the photo was taken.
> 
> In Linux there are a couple of different ways I can get the date and time the 
> photo was taken.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Bob

A second quick note, while the photograph may be used as evidence I
wonder if the timestamp can be treated as a separate piece of evidence.
You might want to search for some rulings about timestamps in prior
cases. They seem to easy to get wrong. Though I guess it's not any
different than someone guessing the time based on their wrist watch.
They key here seems to be to get the judge/and or jury to think
differently about the timestamp than the photo itself.

Alex