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Category Archives: expert testimony
Forensics: Drilling down on Cognitive and Human Factors in Expert Decision Making: Six Fallacies and the Eight Sources of Bias
Too bad this has a purchase firewall. Abstract inly. — Read on pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00704
Forensics: Messed up DNA specimen evidence is discovered by defense DNA experts.
This story tells how unequal forensic resources leaves defendants without court approval for independent testing. The judge refused to grant funding. The defense garnered $$ from donations. Then there is the mixup of swabs that they discovered. Also, the prosecution … Continue reading
The Innocence Files season 1, episode 2 recap: The Truth Will Defend Me
Forensics: Episode 2 of Netflix series The Innocence Files looks at the freeing of 2 innocent suspects, faulty bitemark evidence, and a prison with historical links to slavery. — Read on showsnob.com/2020/05/12/the-innocence-files-season-1-episode-2-recap/ The Bundy dentist’s opinion in the 1979 trial … Continue reading
Forensics: Judge and DA both reject bitemarker expertise. Not the first rodeo for the ABFO dentist and his floundering dental colleagues of the American Academy of Forensic Science.
This judge is very clear that the original prosecutor’s use of a bitemarker’s opinion convicted an innocent woman. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/the-reveal/georgia-woman-freed-from-prison-over-flawed-bitemark-evidence/85-88f98a25-4bca-42f2-976b-1119738f1ca8
Forensics: Junk shoeprint matching and DNA catches up with another famed forensic expert.
This is a continuing story involving Henry Lee and the crime lab where he has been a decades-long teacher and examiner. Added intrigue has to do with a FBI footprint guru teaching how to “definitely” identify a defendant from a … Continue reading
Forensics: DNA contamination personified in this case from Australia.
In the US, prosecutors in San Diego investigated the lab worker whose DNA was mixed up in the crime scene samples. He later committed suicide. This case in AU has similar DNA problems. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/more-dna-contamination-claims-emerge-at-claremont-trial/12011756
Forensics: A DC judge calls out police junk forensics – then limits expert ballistic evidence.
A rare look into a judge doing his job by using scientific principles to reject decades-long use of exaggerated bullet matching assumptions. Good summation of issues by Radley Balko at WaPo. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/28/dc-judge-issues-much-needed-opinion-junk-science/
Forensics: A “cavalier”and long-time shaken baby expert will not admit his decades of misdiagnoses.
Dr. Steiner’s “Saving the kids” mantra was later adopted by the bitemarkers. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/investigations/3news-investigates-science-behind-shaken-baby-cases-under-attack/95-049076b8-261c-41d7-87b2-a631864b2e6f
Forensics: Canadian look at bias in expert testimony
An appellate judge says distorted expert testimony can “swallow the entire judicial process.” https://www.lakecountrycalendar.com/columns/kootnekoff-problematic-experts-in-legal-proceedings/
Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, CSI, expert testimony, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias
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Forensics: Perjury by a Prosecution expert #AAFS2020
Not all experts tell the truth. Good read for forensic students. https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/02/daniel-j-wright-perjury-by/
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