Category Archives: criminal justice

Serial rapists and underachieving government crime lab; cops as “super-experts”

“Did Failures at APD’s Crime Lab Lead to Sexual Assaults in Houston?” (Austin Chronicle) A new Harvard Law Review article titled “The Judicial Presumption of Police Expertise” questions whether police should be treated as expert witnesses when giving testimony in criminal … Continue reading

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Here’s a criminal lawyer’s worst nightmare: Hiring a forensic expert with a faked resume.

Interesting story for a few reasons: The opposing expert was a cop and thought this defense expert’s CV looked suspicious. This in itself isn’t unusual. Fact-checking an expert is a rather basic act by both sides in court cases. I’ve … Continue reading

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LEOs not reporting police shooting/custody deaths still using their DOJ grant money and MRAPS

The disonant (or maybe permissive) Department of Justice federal oversight of local law enforcement agencies seems to rival a tragicomedy versions of “who’s on first?” Or more impolitely, the boondoggle. The decades-long sharing of military equipment with police ( 1033 program … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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