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Category Archives: AAFS
AP:Mississippi death row inmate returns to trial court to argue for vacating conviction – bitemarks
Besides new DNA from post-conviction testing, the MS Special Assistant Attorney General Jason L. Davis says that “new” evidence showing bite marks are now discredited “science” should now be barred. He seemed confused about his own state’s crime lab’s DNA results … Continue reading
A USC alum and faculty who is a “Dental Detective” – The Ostrow School of Dentistry
This article starts on the school’s Trodent Summer 2015 digital magazine on page 17.
MS Supreme Court remands Howard for new litigation, which is not progress.
In response to recent oral arguments, the MS high court just issued this 2015-08-06 order Howard for a “new evidentiary hearing.” This case has had major prosecutorial bitemark ID junk evidence issues for decades and nearly a ten year effort to get … Continue reading
Posted in AAFS, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, CSI, DNA profiling, exoneration
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Forensics: More judicial illiteracy about scientific principles
Somewhere there must be an appellate judge who understands something about reliability. The 7th US Circuit sure needs some help. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/federal-appeals-court-drug-dog-thats-barely-more-accurate-than-a-coin-flip-is-good-enough
Flickering Examples of Science getting into Forensics | From Science and the DNA Newsletter
Forensic labs and experts considering blind testing to remove potential context bias At the NIST “Error Management” Conference earlier this month, experts agreed that “a key problem…is that people who evaluate evidence from crime scenes have access to information about … Continue reading
Forensics: 1996 op-ed warning about DNA’s effect on bitemark opinions
A warning to bitemark experts that has been ignored by the AAFS and its flesh bite experts. This was published in the forensic dental newsletter of the ABFO. http://www.expertlaw.com/library/identification/bite_marks.html
Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, CSI, Forensic Science, forensic science reform
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Forensics : 1960 When bitemarks were considered equal to fingerprints……..
………a British dentist said “bruises in human flesh” bitemarks were”unreliable evidence” and expressed reasons that were, 49 years later, used by the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 . He also said “usually a self-styled expert” and “so-called expert (s)” … Continue reading
Bad actors and negligent experts in Crim Justice still immune.
This follows up previous blogs about how citizens, damaged by CJ incompetence (including some lawyers) and bad acts, run afoul of legal interpretations of immunity for state employees and their minions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/30/people-wronged-by-the-criminal-justice-system-face-a-long-road-to-compensation (copyright 2015 Dental and Forensic Services LLC )
Federal judge opinion about “experts peddling junk science to credulous judges and jurors”…..
This federal court (from the Chicago area) opinion speaks to how people exonerated of serious crimes have little legal recourse (having no state statutes and judicial case law privileges or right to sue most government “actors.”) for recompense for damages caused … Continue reading
Forensics: A BIG dust up in AUSTRALIA over 400 opines of a state Medical Examiner
This all started with a recent judicial (last year) opinion on a 20 year-old case dealing with “murder in a bathtub.” The government’s path guy, Dr. Colin Manock, got clobbered in a book about this case and which seems to … Continue reading
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