Category Archives: CSI
Forensics: Statements why Shaken Baby Syndrome diagnoses are flawed and influenced by the courts.
The scientific fallacies of SBS This article has a checkered past as the authors’ compelling analysis was initially rejected. It is telling that their story parallels the process of how overreaching expertism, once adopted by the courts and despite scant … Continue reading
Posted in criminal justice, criminal justice reform, CSI, Forensic Science
Tagged science, Shaken Baby Syndrome
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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: Excuses for using inaccurate dental ageing methods fill this interview with University of Texas adjunct professor Dr. David Senn
The UT system made $16,000 so far this year from ICE cases involving children claiming to be children. The method is quite popular with the man hired to do it. He also considers ” bitemark matching” to be useful for … Continue reading
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
Forensics: Another expert with 40 hours of training recants his own testimony
.https://www.propublica.org/article/blood-spatter-expert-robert-thorman-joe-bryan-case/amp?__twitter_impression=true Blood-Spatter Expert in Joe Bryan Case Says “My Conclusions Were Wrong” The expert whose testimony was key to Bryan’s conviction for his wife’s 1985 murder says he now believes that some of his techniques were incorrect. His admission comes … 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
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Talking forensic heads ignore the dental evidence in London tower disaster
The Grenfell Tower disaster. The medical side of forensics talks about DNA being the cornerstone for potential identification. He does admit that teeth are highly resistant to total destruction in high temperature environments but misses the obvious dental identification material … Continue reading
Posted in CSI
Tagged dental identification, human identification, mass, mass disaster recovery
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Forensics is at the core of the London terror attack reconstruction
This very thorough article from Deutschland’s DW leads with the demands on crime scene methods in determining many of the events leading up to and occurring after the recent sad event in London. http://www.dw.com/en/police-seize-huge-amount-of-forensic-material-in-london-attack-raids/a-39110961
