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Category Archives: criminal justice
Forensic Science reform gets a knee jerk backlash from the District Attorneys – #PCAST
National District Attorneys Association slams President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report Note that the NDAA (national DA association) president is none other than San Bernardino’s pro death penalty DA Michael Ramos (@michaelramos). I’m not surprised at this … Continue reading
BIte Mark Matchers now under scrutiny by the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board
THE FIELD: BITE-MARK COMPARISON Forensic dentist Richard Souviron, during a police workshop, urges caution over bite-mark comparisons: “You’ve got to be real careful with this kind of evidence.” Tribune photos by Alex Garcia. Tribune photo by Alex Garcia Yes, … Continue reading
Forensic racism suggests “blinding” case details as a cure.
Here’s a new level of nastiness. The above is an example of scientific racism reported from the forensic anthro post Ancestry, Race and Anthropology. A new example from Iowa. From the Desmoines-Register A thistle to former state forensic scientist Amy Pollpeter, who expressed blatantly racist sentiments on social … Continue reading
When crime labs go rogue. Safety suffers. Honesty seems more doubtful.
Max Houck (@maxmhouck) used to run the Washington DC Forensic Science facility which then boasted as being “independent” a la Houston’s Forensic Science Center. Above is his Twitter response to and post about police managers refusing an open and transparent scientific … Continue reading
False forensic testing adds to growing mistrust of cops, their labs and prosecutors
A couple of telling articles call again for the public to understand how the relationship between cops , their crime labs and prosecutors lead to false convictions via intimidating suspects into pleading guilty via misused field testing kits. Barry Scheck … Continue reading
Texas Symposium on Exonerations, bad forensics, bad prosecutions and the death penalty.
Anyone out there knowing a DA supporting the death penalty as a secure means of doling out proper justice in the US might do well to send him/her the information flyer showing the topics being discussed in Houston this August. … Continue reading
Another obstinate and proudly relentless prosecutor from Louisiana
On to Louisiana and its about a death penalty conviction for child murder. “Dale Cox (pictured above) was the Louisiana prosecutor against Crawford (the defendant), a case which rested almost exclusively on the testimony of a state forensic pathologist who claimed … Continue reading
The bloom is off forensic DNA’s infallibility – Scientific American
Eric Frimpong and Santa Barbara defense attorney Robert Sanger in 2008. With the FBI making a step to reel in its history of wayward forensic conclusions, Scientific American wades into the “restructuring” of DNA opinions in much the same way. … Continue reading
Forensic look at death penalty statistics: 25% of exonerated were on Death Row
A 2013 infographic study by the California Innocence Project puts the cost in California at a staggering $4 billion since 1978. Statistics contained in this report, when overlayed with the national increase of exonerations ( now at 1793) , in the … Continue reading
Advances of science affects some convictions – so far bitemarks aren’t included
The resounding inconsistencies in how US courts “handle” forensic expertise is brain-numbing. The Mississippi Supreme Court and the state attorney General Jim Hood’s go to chief appellate guy, Jason Davis (pictured above), are still investing in the now bitemark rejecting … Continue reading
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