Category Archives: Bite Marks
Looking at a Revolution? Getting Forensics Out of Law Enforcement
Many reform ideas in this series of Q&A to forensic and legal experts by the WaPo’s Radley Balko. All are logical and very practical. Prosecutors must be gagging. Here is a quote: Chris Fabricant, the Innocence Project Easiest reform: Eliminate … Continue reading
Blood spatter analysis (i.e. BPA) theories contradict physics and scientific research. Study reveals serious lack of university-level involvement in this police-adopted method.
Is anyone suprised? The spatterists still are throwing pig blood against walls and clothing. This study debunks their “velocity” of impact/force blood spatter paradigms. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/forensics-bloodstain-pattern-analysis/ Kudos to The Innocence Project’s Sarah Chu for her comments in this NOVA article. Read … Continue reading
Forensic bias dangers from police interactions
Notables discuss the interface between police and anyone examining crime scene evidence. Especially those folks working police crime labs. Recent cases of experts being influenced by police theories certainly highlights this as creating cognitive bias. It is very hard to … Continue reading
See how far DAs go to hide #Flawed #Forensics
38K bogus crime lab tests got the prosecutors to reveal their duplicity in covering it up. WTF. Not beyond what happens w bitemark cases. https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/07/30/prosecutors-who-covered-up-mass-drug-lab-scandal-now-face-bar-discipline-civil-rights-suit/
FoxNews: Unreliable bitemarks still on the books in all 50 states.
https://fox6now.com/2019/07/17/its-essentially-junk-bite-mark-case-underscores-national-call-to-improve-forensic-evidence/ Excellent 8min video expose’ on the recent Stinson $7.5M award for wrongful conviction in Milwaukee. As usual, the city taxpayers take the financial hit. Kudos to all those who helped this case along. Heather Donnell and her staff are … Continue reading
Forensics: The Attack of the Bite Mark Matchers Revisited
Recent civil litigation regarding Robert Lee Stinson suing for compensation for his years in prison as an innocent man. Once again, its all about bitemarks. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2019/06/26/prosecutor-dentists-swayed-him-gut-feeling-suspect-innocent/1561073001/ A broader look at the effects of scientifically inadequate bitemark opinions. (2015) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/02/18/attack-of-the-bite-mark-matchers-2/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7d3a7afc5aa2
Forensics: Dentists continue to assume bitemark patterns are accurate
As usual, dentists show little interest and generally ignore the fact that skin is easily distorted. This paper studies skin color. Meh. http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Scheila_Manica/publication/332415224_Exploring_bite_marks_on_different_types_of_skin_tones/links/5cb73f0692851c8d22f23ef3/Exploring-bite-marks-on-different-types-of-skin-tones.pdf
Forensics: Texas becomes the first State to call bitemarks “junk science.”
As usual in these innocence cases, it took decades to overcome the inequities of flawed and exaggerated forensic experts. In this case, Steven Chaney is has been finally declared “actually innocent” and will receive $2.5 million for his decades in … Continue reading
Faulty Forensics Put Me on Death Row – VICE Video: Documentaries, Films, News Videos
Another look at bitemark “experts” running amok. Most people are introduced to forensic science through TV and film, and because of this we have come to see forensic techniques as foolproof methods for solving crimes. But many forensic science techniques … Continue reading
