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Category Archives: ABFO
Bickering Bitemark Analysts need to read this: Chemists’ guidelines and expectations on science
The American Chemical Society has taken a very proactive position in reinforcing scientific standards through its involvement in forensic reform and progress. A notable aspect of this group is its university and industrial component membership base that conforms to legitimate … Continue reading
The odd “reform” coexistence of law enforcement, criminal justice and private forensic orgs
Taking some joy out of Xmas, the Wash Post columnist Radley Balko draws out the pattern of current forensic events focusing on methods review into a broader question. How difficult is it to change multi-governmental institutional culture? He describes how the … Continue reading
Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bitemarks
Tagged Criminal Justice, CSI, Forensic science, junk science, National Commission on Forensic Science, Radley Balko
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Major US Forensic Lab Scandals by State : The DOJ takes a stab at solution
Rumblings about mess-ups in US government-run forensic labs has finally reached the US DOJ. The reliability aspects of who does the “accreditation” is another matter. Thanks to NACDL and @celiagivens at the DNA Newsletter. DOJ to Mandate Lab Accreditation The … Continue reading
Forensics: Decomp rate of microbial system in dead bodies considered marker for TOD
Dead bodies are the topic today. Researchers from UC of San Diego are talking about Time of Death determinations using bacteria. Considering the encironmental and physical factors that influence decomposition rathers, this research still has a longgg way to go. … Continue reading
Posted in AAFS, ABFO
Tagged American Academy of Forensic Science, crime labs, Forensic science
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Forensics: White House Science and Technology opinion on Bitemark Identification
Here is the keynote speaker ( Jo Handlesman Ph.D) at a 2015 NIJ conference on forensic science speaking about the unenviable position bitemarkers have attained by showing no reliability in their opinions and being individually inconsistent in their courtroom testimony. … Continue reading
Australia gets rid of unreliable forensic expert’s convictions – So should Mississippi and other states
A long time Australian pathologist who retired in 1995, having recently been given an “unreliable” designation by the Aussie courts, is the subject of extensive re-litigation of many of his past trials. Coincidentally, the Mississippi Supreme Court has ordered another … Continue reading
DC considering tightening rules to combat junk science in its courts
Talk about partisan politics in the judicial system. Washington DC lawyers (plantiffs lawyers of course. They sue people in civil courts mostly on a contingency basis) are whining (lets call it like it is) about the DC judiciary thinking about … Continue reading
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Seeks Forensic Info
PCAST Forensic Science Questions PCAST consists of 20 of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to provide direct advice to him and the White House on important matters of science and technology. PCAST has recently begun … Continue reading
Forensics : DAs mess up their own DNA evidence and judge lets them use it against the defense
Douglas Prade has spent over 29 years in prison, then was released by another judge for 16 months and then re-imprisoned since July 2014 by another judge. The physical evidence (a bitemark) of his identification presented at the original trial that … Continue reading
Grass roots effort to improve justice in 3 Mississippi Counties : Voters and Exoneration Documentary
Carrington Op-ed From Mississippi The Dispatch What the esteemed MS Law Professor and MS Innocence Project director Tucker Carrington (pictured above) does not say in his opinion piece urging voters to elect a new DA (long term Forrest Allgood is the incumbent and a … Continue reading
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