Category Archives: costs of wrongful convictions
Forensics: Harvard murder from 50 years ago. New DNA shows just how wrong initial investigators’ theories can be
This is is commonly what happens once DNA testing is done AFTER a conviction. One of the problems is the cost of post conviction testing that has to be borne by the Innocence Project and other innocence litigators. Donate … Continue reading
Forensics: Another grassroots attempt to establish a Forensic Science Commission in Wisconsin. This paper written by PhD candidates.
http://www.sciencepolicyjournal.org/uploads/5/4/3/4/5434385/bratburd.pdf The LEO crime labs won’t like this intrusion on their domains. A 2005-2008 study suggesting similar went nowhere in the WI legislature.
Forensics: Grits for Breakfast: Most crime labs accused innocent person in DNA mixture study
Grits for Breakfast: Most crime labs accused innocent person in DNA mixture study — Read on gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2018/09/most-crime-labs-accused-innocent-person.html The dark side of the NIST DNA mis-identification report covered in my last blog. Subterfuge and disclaimers to quash use in court by … Continue reading
Forensics: Runaway use of touch DNA by Prosecutors ignores it’s limitations and cautions.
Framed By Your Own Cells: How DNA Evidence Imprisons The Innocent Marina Medvin Tiny amounts of touch-transferred DNA have placed people at locations they had never visited and implicated people for crimes they did not commit. | Getty Images … Continue reading
Bias in Cop and Forensic Investigations …….
…….reads like my first 10 years of training from the bitemarkers at the ABFO. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6386/243.full
Another exoneration from a bitemark conviction is pending. Court hearing next week.
John Kunco in Pennsylvania has local and Innocence Project attorneys arguing for his release on May 23. His possible exoneration could bring the number of men released from false science testimony of bitemarkers to 31 cases. http://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/13657991-74/lawyers-say-new-dna-evidence-proves-john-kunco-innocent-of-new-kensington Backstory on Kunco.
Trump’s DOJ promises advancing good things for #Forensic #Science – #PCAST not so much
The governmental missives about improving forensics always gloss over or ignore what the NAS 2009 report and the 2016 PCAST report itemized as areas needing reform. Here we go: “The new guidance implements additional quality assurance measures based on science-informed … Continue reading
Posted in Bite Marks, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice reform, CSI, forensic science misconduct, forensic science reform protecting the innocent
Tagged American Academy of Forensic Science, forensic examiner error, Forensic science, junk forensic science, latent fingerprints, Miscarriage of justice, wrongful convictions
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Anti-PCAST District Attorney Says Bitemark Analysis Opponents Are “Flawed”
Originally posted on FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends:
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.…
UK judicial system seems to be strangling on budget cuts and court closures
Of course , this is just the tip of the iceberg, as Internet savvy barristers talk about being pressured to accept cases for very little reimbursement. Automation in scheduling appearances, testimony and adjudication by non-lawyers in petty cases describes a … Continue reading
Thanks to Drs Janice Klimm and Rick Cardoza – Taking Care of Bill Richards’ Smile After 23 yrs in prison
Bill Richards was arrested for the murder of his wife Pamela in 1993 and eventually convicted in 1997 after three trials in California’s San Bernardino County. A linchpin for his last trial was testimony by two forensic dentists who talked … Continue reading
