Latest News on Forensic Science and Criminal Law
-
Join 223 other subscribers
Category Archives: criminal justice reform
Swinton bitemark exoneration generates praise for Conn Attorney General – Really?
The AG’s office declined to recharge Alfred Swinton after his 1991 conviction fell apart due to DNA “touch” analysis of the victim and a bitemark expert who recanted his trial testimony. The praise for the AG in this first article … Continue reading
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
Leave a comment
More examples of sub-standard death investigations by law enforcement – evidence ignored and bias from the beginning
This case has parents suing a Coroners Office to reopen their daughter’s death investigation. They argue that the actual crime scene was never processed and the circumstances of the young woman’s death raise significant questions regarding the death being suspicious. … Continue reading
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
Anti-Junk forensics legislation continues to use bitemark “identifications” in the battle against false convictions.
Keith Harvard. Conviction in 1982. Released in 2016. So far, two states in the US have generated new laws which allow inmates to contest dubious, outmoded or outright false claims of forensic ‘experts’ used to aid their convictions. Texas and … Continue reading
Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, criminal justice reform, forensic science reform protecting the innocent
Tagged American Academy of Forensic Science, AMERICAN BOARD OF FORENSIC ODONTOLOGY, Bad forensic science, forensic science reform protecting the innocent, junk forensic science, wrongful convictions
Leave a comment
Overbearing DAs are an abomination to society professing justice for all (or some in these cases)
Putting innocent crime victims in jail crosses the moral line into the grotesque Inquistorial traditions of torture and victim humiliation. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-are-prosecutors-putting-innocent-witnesses-in-jail
Federal Public Defenders want autopsy report of ARK execution – State objects
Nothing describes the onerous lack of prosecutorial transparency regarding the death penalty better than this article on the State of Arkansas legal maneuvering to hide what happened at the April 27th execution of Kenneth Williams. “Witnesses to the execution reported … Continue reading
Major US science orgs oppose Sessions cancelling of forensic science commission
The AAAS, ACS and two other groups associated with main-stream science put in their two cents about desiring “independent and transparent” review and monitoring of police forensic research and methods. This will largely prove futile. It is obvious that the … Continue reading
AAFS president DesPortes sounds off abt junk science in forensic labs
She is making clear for Science Friday that self validation of methods by police crime labs leads justice into the swamp. Science Friday May 20, 2017
Crime experts go after Trump’s distain for rule of science and law in all things criminal
Criminology Leaders Assail Trump for Uniformed Policy Initiatives This multi-level rebuke covers: ( from the Crime Lab Report ) “In its statement [ASC] the board focused on the areas of immigration, crime trends, the federal government’s role in police reform, and “draconian … Continue reading
FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends 