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State liability for faked crime lab testing goes to the jury – Boston
Former state chemist Annie Dookhan was sentenced to three to five years in state prison after she pleaded guilty in 2013 to tampering with evidence and filing false reports. 9:15 am PDT update at the bottom Massachusetts is first up … Continue reading
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Tagged Forensic science, junk science, Miscarriage of justice, wrongful convictions
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Overview about “Purg(ing) junk science from courtroom” : Effective National Policies Needed
Details into what the Texas Forensic Science Commission is all about. Too bad there are 48 other states without similar legislative produced review boards. The White House needs to become more active in supporting and implementing similar standards. So far … Continue reading
UK Forensic Science Regulator getting statutory powers may affect current SBS “witchhunt”
Dr. Gillian Tully, the UK Forensic Science Regulator The US should take heed of whats happening in the UK in reorganization of its forensic science industry in order to standardize forensic methods and outcomes. In the US, this would circumvent all … Continue reading
DNA ruled contamination from “unknown persons” over bitemark now ineffective for new Prade trial
Nothing but eyewitness testimony was used to convict Prade of murdering his wife. The court refuses to concede that neither unknown DNA taken from the “bitemark area” nor the pseudo-science of the prosecution’s bitemark expert would be grounds for a … Continue reading
Los Angeles leads in staggering financial effects of wrongful convictions in CA ; $221 million
This chart is from the Chicago-based Center on Wrongful Convictions parallel study on WC costs from about five years ago. This article is from California. Los Angeles leads with $93.3 million. “Released Wednesday, the analysis says mistakes in the state’s … Continue reading
Forensics : Montana State crime lab gets some positive PR, then this happens.
Here we go again…. Local media loves PR releases from chief Prosecutors and crime lab directors who talk about improvements to their response times for forensic analyses. It’s titled “The Reality of the Montana State Crime Lab.” It was first posted … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged crime labs, Forensic science, Miscarriage of justice, wrongful convictions
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Forensics : Streaming Presentation on Flawed Forensic Science and Innocence
This comes from West Virginia School of Law’s recent weekend symposium with some heavy hitters of sci evidence law, forensics, innocence litigators, and the media. Thanks to Brandon Garrett. Entire program on Youtube. Needs some editing. But, here is the agenda and … Continue reading
Forensic Science Reform naysayer takes a jab at the US DOJ for further scrutinizing forensic “error”
Here is a narrative by a fellow who spends money on PR releases about forensics. This piece is regarding the speech given last week by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates at the annual meeting of the American Academy of … Continue reading
The Locard Fallacy: “Unique” impression evidence fails statistical tests once again : Ballistics
Considering that the Innocence Projects database (almost 350) of DNA exonerations shows a 46% contribution from unvalidated or faulty forensic testimony, this featured article focuses on bullet “matching” and by association extends to tires and bite marks. From my last … Continue reading
UK: Typical PR ad about a lukewarm improvement in looking at shoeprints
Its great to know that university people are looking to improve imaging for impression evidence. This time its shoe prints. Too bad the experimenter thinks that “gait” leads to a “somewhat distinctive” pattern which then begs the question about … Continue reading
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