Also known as: self-authenticate · self-authenticates · self-authenticated · self-authentication · self authenticating
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A characteristic of certain documents or items of evidence by which they establish their own genuineness on their face. This feature permits admission without testimony or other extrinsic proof of authenticity.
Serena Soto sues Sydney Santos to establish paternity of her child. She offers a genetic testing report that appears in a record and carries the signature under penalty of perjury of a laboratory designee. The court admits the report without requiring additional testimony because the document meets the criteria for self-authentication.
Sylvia Santos offers a certified county health inspection report bearing the official county health department seal to show a resort passed inspection. The resort objects that no custodian testified. The court overrules the objection and admits the report because the seal on its face satisfies the requirement for self-authentication.
In 2001 Boston police officers received a tip that a Kmart employee was engaging in suspicious activity involving repeated short trips in a blue sedan. Officers set up surveillance in the parking lot, observed the described sequence of events, detained the employee upon his return, and discovered four clear plastic bags containing a substance resembling cocaine. The officers then arrested the two men in the car, one of whom was petitioner Luis Melendez-Diaz. The officers placed all three suspects in a police cruiser. During the short drive to the police station the officers observed their passengers fidgeting and making furtive movements in the back of the car. After depositing the men at the station they searched the police cruiser and found a plastic bag containing nineteen smaller bags hidden in the partition between the front and back seats. The officers submitted the seized substances to the State Laboratory Institute of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which was required by law to conduct chemical analysis upon police request. Analysts at the laboratory performed the tests on November 28, 2001, and prepared three certificates of analysis that reported the weight of the bags and stated that the substance was found to contain cocaine. Each certificate was sworn before a notary public by the analysts, as required under Massachusetts law, and reprinted the statutory provision making the certificates prima facie evidence of the composition, quality, and net weight of the narcotic analyzed. Melendez-Diaz was charged with distributing cocaine and trafficking in cocaine in an amount between 14 and 28 grams. At trial the prosecution introduced the bags seized from the codefendant and from the cruiser along with the three certificates. Petitioner objected to admission of the certificates, asserting that Crawford v. Washington required the analysts to testify in person. The trial court overruled the objection and admitted the certificates pursuant to the state statute. The jury found Melendez-Diaz guilty. He appealed, contending that admission of the certificates violated his Sixth Amendment right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed the convictions, relying on a prior decision of the Supreme Judicial Court that had held forensic analysts are not subject to confrontation. The Supreme Judicial Court denied review, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
View caseSelf-authentication satisfies only the threshold requirement of authenticity. The opponent remains free to introduce evidence showing the document is not genuine or to argue that it deserves little weight.
Documents bearing an official governmental seal and signature, certified copies of public records, notarized acknowledgments, commercial paper, and certain business records accompanied by a proper certification all qualify.
Supporting sources
A genetic testing report is self-authenticating when it is in a record and signed under penalty of perjury by a designee of the testing laboratory, satisfying the requirements of the uniform act.
Supporting sources
The presence of a qualifying official seal on its face is sufficient regardless of later custody. The rule does not require proof of chain of custody once the seal requirement is met.
…certificate from the document's custodian stating that the copy is accurate. See, e.g. , Fed. Rule Evid. 902(4) (in order to be self-authenticating, a copy of a public record must be "certified as correct by the custodian"); Rule 902(11) (business record must be "accompanied by a written declaration of its custodian"). Under one…