Category Archives: criminal justice

Some DAs wandering afar from ethical guidelines

Leaking prosecutors seem to be getting some attention from the FEDS. But they ultimately get slapped on the pinky finger. As in prosecutor Mike Nifong in the Duke rape railroad case getting one day in jail. Its even worse when … Continue reading

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TX arson case of three decades ago gets a new trial and exposes the gap between science and prosecutions

A long read from Slate but is worth every minute. See how circumstantial evidence (the “bad man” and “liar” collar given to defendants,” and revived “memories” of eye witnesses from long ago impact defense attempts to reject the impregnable original … Continue reading

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Forensics: How an anti-lie detector examiner ran afoul of the feds.

This is a long read, but is worth it. Its rather incredible that anyone who admits or “confesses” to crimes and misdeeds to a non law enforcement examiner providing prepping them to pass a lie detector test. The rub appears … Continue reading

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Forensics: Politicos and Prosecutors run amuck protecting their interests in running US crime labs

A fully developed expose’ by William C. Thompson of the  University of Irvine. He expounds the ‘sub rosa’ motivations of the DC big wigs who this year fired the managers and legal counsel of one of the first independent crime … Continue reading

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A USC alum and faculty who is a “Dental Detective” – The Ostrow School of Dentistry

This article starts on the school’s Trodent Summer 2015 digital magazine on page 17.  

Posted in AAFS, Bad Forensic Science, Crime, criminal justice, CSI, Forensic Dentistry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Forensics: More judicial illiteracy about scientific principles

Somewhere there must be an appellate judge who understands something about reliability. The 7th US Circuit sure needs some help. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/federal-appeals-court-drug-dog-thats-barely-more-accurate-than-a-coin-flip-is-good-enough

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Flickering Examples of Science getting into Forensics | From Science and the DNA Newsletter

Forensic labs and experts considering blind testing to remove potential context bias  At the NIST “Error Management” Conference earlier this month, experts agreed that “a key problem…is that people who evaluate evidence from crime scenes have access to information about … Continue reading

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Bad actors and negligent experts in Crim Justice still immune.

This follows up previous blogs about how citizens, damaged by CJ incompetence (including some lawyers) and bad acts, run afoul of legal interpretations of immunity for state employees and their minions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/30/people-wronged-by-the-criminal-justice-system-face-a-long-road-to-compensation (copyright 2015 Dental and Forensic Services LLC )

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Civil rights, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, CSI, Exoneration costs, expert testimony, forensic science misconduct | 1 Comment

First US DNA exoneree from 1993 gets political

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news-events-exonerations/kirk-bloodsworth-urges-congress-to-fund-dna-testing-and-innocence-efforts

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The National Registry of Exons. When convictions go wrong, the price in human suffering can’t be ignored

  Read this excerpt first….. “The registry receives four or five letters a week from prisoners who claim to be innocent. They’re heartbreaking. Most of the writers are probably guilty, but some undoubtedly are not. We tell them that we … Continue reading

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