Under the Federal Rules of Evidence (referenced elsewhere), photo manipulation by CSI technicians is allowed, so long as those technicians can be there to attes

Under the Federal Rules of Evidence (referenced elsewhere), photo manipulation by CSI technicians is allowed, so long as those technicians can be there to attest to the methods and algorithms they used, and they can show the before and after steps at each stage and explain exactly what happened during that stage. This retains the digital chain of custody for the image. This could easily be used to digitally zoom in on an image, for example. Where things went sideways here is the prosecution expecting to be able to use pinch-to-zoom as testimony in court, when they should have actually gone through the standard CSI process of producing a digital zoomed image. Now, to be honest, I think they should have been able to use pinch-to-zoom. If they lose the case because of this problem, I hope they can get a mistrial declared and then go back with the proper procedure. Otherwise, the prosecution just plain screwed themselves over.