Abstract:
Scientific evidence plays significant roles in proving guilt or innocence of the accused in criminal cases. Evidence collected from the crime scenes, e.g. finger nails, hair, body hair, blood stains and semen stains, can be processed by scientific method in order to determine the offender of the crime. The use of scientific evidence to prove facts in criminal cases in Thailand faces a number of difficulties, for example, the question of authority of governmental officers to process scientific evidence or collect intimate samples, such as blood or tissue, from the body of the suspects or the accused and the standard by which scientific evidence is admitted and weighted in criminal cases. In light of such difficulties, the Government has proposed the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Criminal Evidence) Bill. In this thesis, the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Criminal Evidence) Bill is analysed by comparison with the theory and rules of the proof of facts in criminal case by scientific evidence adopted in various foreign jurisdictions. Based on the author analysis, the author has concluded that the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Criminal Evidence) Bill contains provisions which conform to the rules of the proof of facts in criminal case by scientific evidence adopted in other jurisdictions, for example, the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Criminal Evidence) Bill authorises governmental officers to collect intimate samples from the body of the suspects or the accused without violating their constitutional rights and freedom and provides that the Government will be responsible for the costs of processing scientific evidence. In the author's opinion, the Criminal Procedure Amendment (Criminal Evidence) Bill, if enacted, will increase the efficiency of the proof of facts in criminal case in Thailand.