Specialist in a Criminal Trial

in the USSR, a person whose skills and knowledge in a particular profession or specialty are used to gather and record evidence.

The specialist, unlike the expert, carries out no independent investigations and submits no conclusions; during the course of an investigative action, however, he renders scientific and technical assistance with respect to the discovery, notation, and removal of material objects and their indicia and with respect to the establishment of the circumstances of the event. When requested to do so by the investigator, for example, the specialist may take part in a view, search, or investigative experiment. He may assist in the photographing of objects in difficult conditions, in the taking of casts and prints, and in the filming and taping of the course of an investigative action. Where professional accuracy is required, he may be called in to help describe certain objects, such as a mechanism or section of roadway. The law specifically provides for a physician to take part in the viewing of a corpse and in the examination and for a professional educator to be present during the interrogation of minor defendants or witnesses.