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Author Archives: csidds
Chris Fabricant of the IP talks about judges avoiding science in the courtroom
“At some point, we have to acknowledge that precedent has to be overruled by scientific reality.” Some of that science — analysis of bite marks, latent fingerprints, firearms identification, burn patterns in arson investigations, footwear patterns and tire treads — … Continue reading
The Next iOS Update Has a Feature to Prevent Cops From Searching Your iPhone
The new feature should be of particular interest to protesters or anyone else who would rather the police not read all their contacts and text messages.
Bitemark dentists get put into civil court to hear from exoneree Robert Stinson
” We conclude that we lack jurisdiction to hear the defend‐ ants’ appeals of the denial of qualified immunity because those appeals fail to take the facts and reasonable inferences from the record in the light most favorable to Stinson … Continue reading
Forensics and Law for the Week: From the News and Courts in the US
Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Michigan State University have published a new study on the development of an algorithm that can determine whether a fingerprint found at a crime scene contains enough information to be uploaded … Continue reading
Houston crime lab gets more bad press: misplaced evidence
https://www.click2houston.com/news/dna-evidence-in-19-year-old-case-found-in-former-houston-forensic-science-employees-office The article states that the new administration of the revamped crime lab reported this discrepancy and have safeguards in place regarding eliminating this type of error.
DNA swabs during arrest not expunged and survive to skew database stats
DNA collected at arrest often not removed from crime databases for those not convicted “Once you enter the system, you can never leave……” http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/08/dna_collected_at_arrest_often_not_removed_from_crime_databases_for_those_not_convicted.html
A Bravo for Christina Cattanero, leading identification expert for Euro migrants
Giving Dead Migrants a Name By pushing forensics to its limits, a courageous scientist is attempting to identify the badly decomposed remains of 700 people who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea Nearly unspeakable. 20,000 dead in 10 years. This anthropologist … Continue reading
Another FBI “standard, reliable, trusted” method goes haywire – Profilers
If you wonder how accurate criminal profiling actually is, just read this LA Times article about the myths surrounding it’s admission into criminal courts. Ole US DOJ has long “accepted” whatever these people come up with regarding perps. The next-gen … Continue reading
DOJ certifies Junk ‘science’ as……….”standard, trusted, reliable”
Try this for Dep AG Rosenstein painting forensics with a very broad brush. This would never work in the health science community, but that’s obviously of no concern to the lawyers running forensics for the US Department of Justice. He … Continue reading
Holtzclaw case points to the misuse and mis information of DNA evidence
Add this case to the list of fundamental problems associated with crime lab related determinations of DNA profiling that, as in this case, are misinterpreted in favor of guilt. The alternatives were never brought forth by defense counsel. A … Continue reading
