All this started about two months ago.
While denying scientific realities and protocols combined with a history of damaging the US criminal justice system, the AAFS/ABFO recently powered up to oppose Texas looking into their dental courtroom activities.
The Forensic Science Commission was made in 2013 by the TX legislature to cure wrongful convictions and execution of the innocent. Texas has the most exonerations in the US.
One of the requests from the FSC was to have ALL Teaxas cases involving bitemark experts be made available for public peer review. This was prefaced with some of the panel’s opening skepticism and outright discreditation (sic or maybe a new word) of this group’s claims of “scientific” identification (they now “specialize” in non DNA available cases as seen in familial child death/abuse investigations).
The current ABFO officers and their small cadre of strident bitemark followers whipped-up a public response a few days later. Its president wrote a letter to the FSC declaring total cooperation and added a caveat that “no archive or database” recording of lab proceedures, testimony, and outcomes of his members was in existence.
My more recent blogs have gone over most of this. here and here. What clearly opened up in to view was that the real tenor of “cooperation” is cynical, smug, and……..not always trustworthy.
There is a ABFO controlled archive of bitemark case work in play. Its been around for over 20 years and has moved to various sites in possession of various members and the AAFS in Colorado Springs. Now its in a museum which gives access to what the TFSC needs. (See link below). Its now dedicated to provide information to legitimate parties involved in research. I hope the ABFO doesn’t get in there with a shredder.
And the TFSC just found about it 3 days ago.
Read the letter the Innocence Project’s Executive Director Maddy deLeon sent them. Innocence Project Retroactive Case Identification Letter
The next TFSC bitemark committee meeting in Dallas is on Nov 16. One of the ABFO members (the other helped an innocent Calvin Washington into prison) allowed into this process has already resigned. I think he ran back to the absolute safety of the AAFS. Its getting too hot in the kitchen. And……
It seems that his full-time boss is one of the TFSC members most critical of bitemarks. Oops.
