Monthly Archives: April 2016

Back and forth in court about raising technical instrumentation ballistic standards

  Does this picture have J. Edgar Hoover and Shirley Temple doing a bullet comp? A prosecutor takes exception to a defense ballistics guy saying higher definition imaging improves accuracy in bullet and rifling comparisons. The guy states that crime labs … Continue reading

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What it takes an innocent inmate to get accepted by the Illinois Innocence Project

The following acceptance guidelines are illuminating as to the factors that enter into an inmate being accepted as a client. It is a daunting list. Preeminent are 1) the inmate must have a history of claiming innocence throughout his/her criminal history, 2) … Continue reading

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Ignoring the scandal of erroneous forensic testimony by dentists @AmerDentalAssn

Notable in these archives of bite mark involved convictions, later overturned, is the lack of oversight and investigation into the causes of these tragedies by both the dental examiners’ professional organizations, the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Forensic … Continue reading

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Inside Exoneration litigation in Mississippi – At Times it’s Utter Frustration #ELHoward

  In 2016, Texas determined that dental bitemark experts should not be admitted in court. What’s now happening in Mississippi (MS) is a classic legal and forensic science example of continuing that agenda. 1993. A bitemark ID was achieved in MS … Continue reading

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Forensic Saga: Raising past bitemark convictions – 1987

The realm of gleaning forensic science fact from fiction is an ongoing chapter in the larger subject of scientific progress. Empirical testing and re-testing are the cornerstone of how science evolves. But, what about practices that have had no legitimate testing … Continue reading

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Forensics: 2d bitemark opinion in the John Kunco case. Where is justice for him? #ADA

“The victim was able to identify Kunco by virtue of a recognizable lisp. Five months after the woman was attacked, an ultraviolet photograph of her back was enlarged and healed bite wounds were compared to a mold of Kunco’s teeth. … Continue reading

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UK Cabinet’s new administraton of forensic sciences seems incomplete or worse?

All I can glean from scant web info is that its full speed ahead for the Forensic Science Regulator (actually a good idea in theory) oversight to become law but she doesn’t get any “enforcement control ( among other issues) and … Continue reading

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Forensics: Not mob journalism. How bitemarks ruled the courtroom and still do

Overview of the prosecution’s bitemark case. John Kunco has now exhausted his appellate review options in Pennsylvania.   

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Excellent “DNA Newsletter” on forensics, prosecutions, junk experts, and more

Forensics in the News A republish from the NY Legal Aid Society’s  “DNA Newsletter” @CeliaGivens 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals rules in US v. Carpenter that the government did not violate defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights by collecting cell site … Continue reading

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Forensics: Pattern injuries in Pistorius case brings out some amateur sleuthing

No surprise here because, back in the Pistorius trial days, I thot nothing could match it (discounting Amanda Knox’s years of uncertainty) in recent history, but then “Making a Murder” jumped onto the silver screen (well, its a LCD screen … Continue reading

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