Last Updated on September 18, 2024
Diaries and journals can be written for many reasons, but one thing most of these writers have in common is the expectation that their private thoughts and observations will be kept confidential. Unfortunately, the US legal system doesn’t hold diaries as a protected source of speech that can’t be used against their writer later on. So if you are accused of a crime, your diary might be used as evidence against you in court, depending on your specific situation and your criminal defense attorney.
When Can a Diary be Used as Evidence?
First, while your diary could be used in a criminal investigation, just because you keep a journal doesn’t always mean it can be used as evidence in court. If your rights were violated when it was obtained (for example, if it was discovered through illegal search and seizure methods), it will be inadmissible in court.
Are Diaries Admissible?
Assuming the search and seizure was legal, for a journal to be used as evidence, the prosecutor must be able to show that the contents are relevant to the case. On the downside, this means the judge, prosecutor, and defense lawyer will all have to read your private writings to debate whether or not they are relevant to the proceedings. While this still won’t make them open to the public record, if you are a person who never wanted anyone to read your innermost thoughts, you will have to cope with having them read by at least these people.
Is Reading Someone’s Personal Diary Illegal?
Typically, it’s not against the law to read another person’s diary if you’re legally in their home, even if it is an unethical invasion of their privacy. However, how you obtained the writings could be a criminal act. If you went into the individual’s home without permission, that could be considered trespassing. Similarly, if you took the diary without permission, that would be petty theft. Entering a person’s home without their consent (even going into a room where you were not invited) with the intent to take their journal would be burglary. If you broke into a locked box or a locked diary, you could be charged with criminal invasion of privacy, even if you didn’t take anything.
In other words, it wouldn’t be a crime to read a friend’s personal journal if they invited you into your home and you snuck a peak while they were out of the room; but if you tried to take it with you or broke into the house, it would be. Interestingly, even if it was stolen, a diary illegally taken by a private civilian could still be used as evidence in court as long as it was relevant to the proceedings.
If you know there’s material relevant to a case in someone’s journal, you don’t need to steal it to use it in court. Instead, you can have your lawyer ensure a relevant document is subpoenaed if there is sufficient proof that it could help your case.
A good fictional example of this type of situation is seen in The Office when Jan steals Michael’s diary to use as evidence in her lawsuit against Dunder Mifflin.
Can a Diary be Used as Evidence on Your Behalf?
It isn’t only the diary of someone accused of a crime that can be used in a trial. Diary entries could also be used as evidence on behalf of the defense. For example, while a journal entry describing how a wife wanted her husband dead may be used by the prosecution to help show a homicide was first-degree murder, an entry about a steamy, romantic sexual encounter by someone who later claims they were raped could help the defendant’s attorney fight the charges.
Usually, Your Whole Journal Won’t be Admissible
The upside is that even if your writings are admitted as evidence, your whole diary will generally not be considered relevant, so only the entries related to the specific case will be made available in the trial. The contents of the rest of the diary can impact how public the documents are made.
In cases where the journal includes many private details about the writer’s life, the court will generally be more sensitive about keeping the contents confidential. On the other hand, if you’re keeping a sleep or food journal, you should likely count on all the entries being entered as evidence.
If you have any questions about how your diary or someone else’s journal may be used in criminal proceedings under the law, please call (760) 643-4050 to schedule a free initial consultation with criminal defense lawyer Peter M. Liss.
