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Author Archives: csidds
Bu****it info to Young Forensic Scientists about bitemarks – AAFS
This is a current AAFS educational profile talking about disciplines within forensic “science.” It is in the “choosing a career in forensic science” section and amongst other activities, explains “scientist-dentists” role in performing bitemark identification analysis. It seems the AAFS hasn’t put … Continue reading
Calling current forensics “error prone” includes mixture DNA evidence
Law professor David Kaye and statistical science blogger sums things up nicely: Analyzing mixtures of DNA is “not like a Ouija board — it’s not junk science in that sense,” said David Kaye, a law professor at Penn State University and author … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged criminal justice, CSI, error prone forensic sciences, Forensic science
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Testing the crime lab testers comes to Houston’s crime lab
I’m not surprised that police crime labs generally avoid stringent internal evals of its personnel. I know of one “blinded” bitemark study, a means of catching perpetrators of crime concept accepted by US District Attorneys. It involved a notorious dentist … Continue reading
More legal argument pro and con to TrueAllele reliability and peer review
Who sets the standards for admissibility of science in courts is the core issue. The history of science in courts contains rules (Frye, Daubert, Kunho) talking about the need for peer review. In one telling remark, the DA in this … Continue reading
Chummy crime labber gets close scrutiny.
Not exactly PC in today’s hyper sensitive awareness of cognitive bias in police crime lab environments http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/11/19/do-thank-you-notes-hint-at-impropriety.html
Bogus video height estimate gets the attention of the TxForensic Sci Commission
Having done some digital comparisons over the last 15 years, mis-sizing objects seen in fotos is real popular with bitemark experts all the time. Here’s a story about a DA having his “expert” botch a pic of someone 5’6″ into … Continue reading
Anti-PCAST District Attorney Says Bitemark Analysis Opponents Are “Flawed”
This National DA Assoc president works in San Bernardino County, among other things a place where bitemarks helped put an innocent Bill Richards in prison for 23 years. Ramos (campaigning for California’s Attorney General post and pro death penalty) has … Continue reading
Felonious toxicologist ran Maricopa AZ crime lab for years
Deep dark secrets and a little help from his police colleagues got toxicologist Norman Wade rehired after running away from a California conviction (in my home town) and making it big again in Arizona. Seems he fit well into the … Continue reading
Posted in forensic fraud, Forensic science misconduct
Tagged expert perjury, fraud, perjury
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Flat-earth concepts of Shaken Baby Syndrome shaken by US judge
For the first time, a New York appellate court has ruled that evidence once used to convict people in shaken-baby cases may no longer be scientifically valid. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/11/16/ruling-alters-legal-landscape-ny-shaken-baby-cases/93952304/ ► Shaken-baby science questioned ► Changing science a tough sell in court UK … Continue reading
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Tagged junk forensic experts, junk science, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Waney Squier
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Supreme Judicial Court questions whether to provide a blanket dismissal to the 24,000 convictions in which Dookhan was involved
The arguments about legal “inconvenience” versus “tainted” forensic evidence versus “unsafe convictions” brings us to the real uncertainties about the definition of justice. Letting the DAs decide is incredibly wrong.
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