Author Archives: csidds

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About csidds

Dr. Michael Bowers is a long time forensic consultant in the US and international court systems.

From the Archives: U.S. Mississippi Death Row Case Faults Bite-Mark Forensics

By ERIK ECKHOLM  SEPT. 15, 2014 NEW YORK TIMES In one of the country’s first nationally televised criminal trials, of the smirking serial murderer Ted Bundy in Florida in 1979, jurors and viewers alike were transfixed as dental experts showed how … Continue reading

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Wednesday’s Quick Clicks…

Originally posted on Wrongful Convictions Blog:
From The National Science Foundation–A new perspective on police interrogations… Connecticut will pay $4 million to former corrections officer Lawrence J. Miller for wrongful conviction… From the LA Times–Clashing courts: Law restricts federal judges’…

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Forensic Mummy investigations : Nefertiti’s boy friend?

I have been involved in mummy identification with the Los Angeles J Paul Getty Villa “Red Shroud” collection in Malibu, so I have a soft spot for looking into the past health issues and skeletal conditions of those long past … Continue reading

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THE SHIFTED PARADIGM: FORENSIC SCIENCE’S OVERDUE EVOLUTION FROM MAGIC TO LAW

A federal magistrate judge speaks words denouncing forensic science superstitions, as some others in the judiciary attack similar soothsayers, and a Virgina Law Review article expounds on a criminal justice system that can’t keep up with science and lacks tools … Continue reading

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The battle to prove coerced confessions and innocence without having DNA to help

Unusual Connecticut Exoneration Centers on Coerced Confession, Not DNA Evidence excerpt: Rosenthal [defense lawyer], citing the University of Michigan Law School National Registry of Exonerations, said this is the 17th Connecticut exoneration and the sixth in the past two years. … Continue reading

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Amanda Knox – The Period at the End of the Sentence.

Originally posted on Wrongful Convictions Blog:
Italy’s Court of Cassation has issued a final, formal opinion on the resolution of the Amanda Knox case. It is a resounding exoneration of Knox and Sollecito, and a scathing indictment of a sloppy,…

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The crumbling US criminal defense system – clients are 80% indigent – DAs get 4x more funding –

This data leads one to answer the question: “Why does the US leads in numbers and percentages of incarcerated populations?” Here’s another one: “Why are the numbers of exonerations increasing every year?” and so forth. By Tina Peng NEW ORLEANS The … Continue reading

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Forensics: Anti-cognitive bias training, limitations of science testimony, politicos and rape kits in NYC

Peter Neufeld, co-founder of The Innocence Project, will speak at the University of St. Thomas as part of a symposium on forensic science this month. “When the Gavel Falls…Limitations of Scientific Testimony” Thursday, September 17, 2015 8:00 AM to 4:00 … Continue reading

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New efforts to ID Pearl Harbor victims, the “excitement of delirium” and other Forensic Notes, some strange others tragic.

After a 1947 internment from the battleship Oklahoma, skeletal remains experience new ID attempts.  North Carolina has two newly compensated exonerees. 30 years in prison while innocent of murder. Once again, false confessions prove to be largely coerced from vulnerable … Continue reading

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“Point of Action” rapid DNA presents major lack of safeguards

These decidedly un-literary PR pieces from DNA companies boggle the mind regarding what they don’t say about reliability safeguards during the use of their “printer sized” machines located at the aptly named CSI style ” point of action.” Maybe they … Continue reading

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