A lone gunman robbed the Fifth Third Bank in Indianapolis one morning. Holding a handkerchief over part of his nose and mouth, the robber pointed a long-barreled, dull-finish revolver at one of the tellers and demanded that she place all of the money at her teller station into a bag. She did not have enough. The robber spotted the bank's office manager, directed him over to the teller line, and ordered him to continue filling the bag from another station. Eventually, the cash from an automatic teller machine in the rear of the bank was also emptied into his sack. The robber then prepared his getaway. Taking the manager out to the parking lot, the robber told him to start his car and climb into the passenger seat. They drove a short distance, and the robber ordered him out of the car. The car was later recovered a short distance away.

Seven weeks later, a similar robbery occurred at the Shelby Federal Savings Bank in Indianapolis. A gunman entered the bank and walked toward one of the tellers, placing a handkerchief over his nose and mouth when he arrived at the window. He pointed a long-barreled revolver at the teller and ordered her to get a bag and fill it with money. This time, the branch manager arrived with a trashcan liner and began stuffing cash inside. When the teller stations ran out, the robber sent her to the vault to get more. The branch manager had recently bagged fifteen hundred dollars in one-dollar bills, and she dropped these bills into his bag. The robber then approached an elderly bank customer, Homer A. Doriot, put the bag in his hands, and led him out to the parking lot. Outside, the robber took Doriot's keys, put him in the passenger seat, and drove some distance before ordering Doriot out. The car was found the same day and returned to its owner.

While driving home on the afternoon of the robbery, Homer Doriot noticed a pair of eyeglasses that he did not recognize on the front seat of his car. Doriot contacted the bank manager, who notified the FBI. The next day, Special Agent Roth of the FBI retrieved the glasses from Doriot's car. That started an impressive performance of high-tech sleuthing. Roth delivered the glasses to Edward H. Schmidt & Sons, an Indianapolis company in the business of manufacturing custom eyeglasses. Mark Schmidt, its president, had the eyeglasses electronically "neutralized," or analyzed, by a machine that reads each lens's prescription by means of refracted light. Schmidt gave Roth a copy of the printout with the prescription of the glasses. Schmidt also determined that the glasses had "Geoffrey Beene" designer frames, roughly eight months to a year old. Armed with this information, Roth went looking for a retailer that sold Geoffrey Beene eyeglasses. He contacted City Optical Company, a corporation that operates "Dr. Tavel Premium Optical" and "Dr. Tavel Vision Value" eyeglasses chains in Indianapolis. Their records turned up a total of seventeen sales of the particular type of frames found in Doriot's car, only one of which matched the prescription Schmidt & Sons analyzed. The name of its purchaser was Charles William Blackburn. Within a few days of the second robbery, almost as if he wanted to confirm the FBI's theory, Blackburn himself walked into a Tavel retail outlet, looking for a replacement pair of eyeglasses. The FBI arrested Blackburn and charged him with two counts of bank robbery and two counts of use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.

At trial, Blackburn argued that the printout of the electronic neutralization performed by Edward H. Schmidt & Sons of the glasses was hearsay and should not be admitted as evidence.

Question: You are the judge in Blackburn's trial. Do you agree with Blackburn that the computer printout of the prescription is hearsay or not? In your first post to share with classmates, give your ruling (i.e., admit the prescription or exclude the prescription) and provide the reasoning for your decision (hint: in your opinion is the prescription computer-generated data or computer-stored data - why?).

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

As the judge in Blackburns trial I would rule to admit the computer printout of the prescription as ... View the full answer