This is a 50 page UBC Law Review narrative on the inadequacies of courts to recognize junk “forensic” experts. Battling Canadian bitemarkers leave a trail of exaggerated claims and criminal case law that is blind to scientific principles.
Forensics: Wow!!Footprint evidence of early hominin locomotor diversity at Laetoli, Tanzania | Nature
Bipedal trackways discovered in 1978 at Laetoli site G, Tanzania and dated to 3.66 million years ago are widely accepted as the oldest unequivocal evidence of obligate bipedalism in the human lineage1–3. Another trackway discovered two years earlier at nearby site A was partially excavated and attributed to a hominin, but curious affinities with bears (ursids) marginalized its importance to the paleoanthropological community, and the location of these footprints fell into obscurity3–5. In 2019, we located, excavated and cleaned the site A trackway, producing a digital archive using 3D photogrammetry and laser scanning. Here we compare the footprints at this site with those of American black bears, chimpanzees and humans, and we show that they resemble those of hominins more than ursids. In fact, the narrow step width corroborates the original interpretation of a small, cross-stepping bipedal hominin. However, the inferred foot proportions, gait parameters and 3D morphologies of footprints at site A are readily distinguished from those at site G, indicating that a minimum of two hominin taxa with different feet and gaits coexisted at Laetoli. Reanalysis of bipedal trackways from Laetoli site A in Tanzania suggest that the footprints were made by a hominin that coexisted with at least one other hominin species.
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04187-7
Forensics: Tell this to the ABFO age “analysts.” Third molar development in a London population of White British and Black British or other Black ethnicity – Andrews – Journal of Forensic Sciences
Third molar development in a London population of White British and Black British or other Black ethnicity – Andrews – – Journal of Forensic Sciences – Wiley Online Library
— Read on onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.14928
Forensics: DNA helps solve 1979 killing of Las Vegas teenager
Forty-two years after Las Vegas teenager Kim Bryant was sexually assaulted and murdered, police say that DNA evidence has identified her killer.
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dna-helps-solve-1979-killing-las-vegas-teenager-rcna7024
Forensics: Exoneration leads to backlash as Alice Sebold Memoir ‘Lucky’ Flooded with Negative Reviews After Anthony Broadwater Exoneration
Anthony Broadwater was exonerated last week, having served 16 years in prison after being falsely accused of raping the author.
— Read on www.newsweek.com/alice-sebold-memoir-lucky-amazon-reviews-anthony-broadwater-exoneration-1654001
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Forensics: 51 prisoners will have their cases reviewed for potential wrongful convictions over hair analysis | Colorado Public Radio
Only 49 states to go.
Investigators and lawyers will look at convictions between 1976 and 1995, where the prisoners are still alive and currently serving sentences.
— Read on www.cpr.org/2021/11/29/51-prisoners-will-have-their-cases-reviewed-for-potential-wrongful-convictions-over-hair-analysis/
Forensics: Total copaganda. Cops in NY have never had a 90% clearance rate. “Murders ‘Doubled Overnight,’ and the Percentage Solved by the N.Y.P.D. Plunged”- The New York Times
This writer is a fool. Changes in discovery rules is very upsetting for police. This article is pure sham.
The police solved nearly 90 percent of murder cases before the pandemic, but only around 60 percent in 2020.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/nyregion/murder-nypd-cases-solved-nyc.html
Forensics Australia: Murder lab ‘train wreck’ in Shandee Blackburn case and implicates many more botched DNA cases.
This articcle goes deep into prolonged mismanagement of crime lab processing in Queensland.
Renowned forensic scientist Dr Kirsty Wright knows well the importance of putting aside emotion during her sometimes harrowing job.
Forensics: 3 in Mexico who investigated 93,000 missings and killings were themselves probed by prosecutors.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Three women who volunteered to investigate the 2011 massacre of 193 people later found out that they themselves had been placed under investigation by prosecutors, possibly because their findings embarrassed Mexican authorities.
— Read on apnews.com/article/mexico-caribbean-forensics-massacres-drug-cartels-a6a495ab069ec453bac253056309a848
Forensics: Kudos to Liliana Segura! Conviction Review Unit Finds It ‘Impossible to Maintain Confidence’ in ’93 Arson Conviction
DA supports vacating murder conviction for Tennessee Innocence Project client Claude Garrett
— Read on www.nashvillescene.com/content/tncms/live/
Forensics: No surprise. Ahmaud Arbery’s Convicted Murderers Almost Escaped Charges, Thanks to Prosecutorial Misconduct
As the trial wraps up, it’s important to remember that the first prosecutor on the case, Jackie Johnson, has been indicted for violating her oath of office.
— Read on reason.com/2021/11/24/ahmaud-arbery-alleged-murderers-almost-escaped-charges-prosecutorial-misconduct-jackie-johnson-george-barnhill/
FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends 