Cadeia de custódia da prova digital: repercussões da sua quebra no processo penal brasileiro.

Abstract

In view of the transformations driven by the hypercomplex relationships of contemporary times, criminal proceedings are subject to repercussions that often challenge previously consolidated preconceived and abstract structures. In this sense, the debate involving the incidence of digital evidence in criminal proceedings cannot help but ignore the necessary relationship it establishes with the chain of custody, since communication and information technologies bring perspectives and possibilities that sometimes require rapid and challenging action. It is in this sense that this study proposed to investigate the repercussions of the breaking of the chain of custody of digital evidence in Brazilian criminal proceedings. To this end, bibliographic and documentary research techniques were used, as well as the deductive approach method, in addition to being classified as qualitative research, given its intention to interpret a legal problem. It was observed, in the end, that the chain of custody of digital evidence must follow a logic based on reliability, which imposes the need for collection, registration, storage, analysis and display using legal methods, such as those used by specialized technical experts in this regard. Therefore, digital evidence collected in violation of legal procedures must be disregarded, under penalty of violating not only the fundamental rights and guarantees of the parties involved, but also the very structuring principles of criminal proceedings, especially due process and the presumption of innocence.