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Comment by boredguy8 | Hacker News Reader

Intentionally destroying incriminating evidence is probably not something you should ever do. Certainly not in such a way that leaves evidence in the form of pulverized IC remains all over your kitchen counter.

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Depends on what it's evidence of. If you're destroying evidence of murder, treason, or something else that'd guarantee you a life/death sentence, an obstruction of justice charge isn't going to seem like very much in comparison.

Good point, I didn't think of that. Obviously I'm not a master criminal.

But how can they prove that it was incriminating evidence?

Usually there'll be a reason for the police to kick your door down. I imagine that plus destroyed evidence would be enough to prove beyond reasonable doubt.

Also, I don't think it necessarily needs to be proven that the evidence was incriminating; just destroying evidence is criminal behavior.

Of course, IANAL, but that's how I'd do it if I ruled the world...

How do you know it was evidence or related to the bust?

There might be all sorts of reasons - if you're being busted for fraud or tax evasion and all of your hard drives are mysteriously blank, or there are empty filing cabinets and a big pile of ash then I would imagine that would go down fairly badly in court.

The modern equivalent is a whole bunch of destroyed media - thumb drives, flash cards or hard drives.

Maybe you just put your private data on flash drives and smash it to bits with a hammer for your own personal privacy, or to get rid of pictures of an ex-girlfriend. There's no way of knowing.

Under danish law, it is not illegal to destroy evidence of your own or your loved ones wrong doing.

I can see there will be a market for edible micro SD cards.

"Sir, we see from your blood sample that you have recently digested some silicon wafer..."

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