More proof that in general, politics, government, and forensic science improvement are incompatible partners.
Complaints about confused juries, junk science and possible miscarriages of justice prompted an investigation into forensic science, which has been shelved.
— Read on www.smh.com.au/national/review-of-junk-forensic-science-in-courts-abandoned-20210520-p57thx.html
Body cam video sheds light on traffic stop where police test child’s ashes for meth
— Read on newschannel20.com/amp/news/local/body-cam-video-sheds-light-on-traffic-stop-where-police-test-childs-ashes-for-meth
Why do we eat our own?
— Read on www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/working-stiff/92683
Good grief. Their ballistics unit got the previous director fired. Back then the lab was praised for being independent from law enforcement. Then law enforcement took it back.
The agency botched a ballistics exam in a murder case, then “misrepresented” its mistake, a panel of experts found.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/jenifer-smith-dfs-resign/2021/05/19/3c43292e-b8f6-11eb-a5fe-bb49dc89a248_story.html
Universities and museums must catalogue the remains of Black Americans in their collections, and pause research pending consultation with descendant communities.
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01320-4
RNA found in specimens from German patients shows the virus may have adapted between first and second waves
— Read on www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/human-tissue-preserved-world-war-i-yields-new-clues-about-1918-pandemic
Under Tali Farhadian Weinstein’s leadership, Brooklyn’s unit exonerated just three people—a far lower rate than in previous years.
— Read on theappeal.org/tali-farhadian-weinstein-brooklyn-conviction-review-unit/
Maine State Police detectives continue to investigate the recent discovery of skeletal remains in Casco, a process that includes a forensic anthropologist Marcella Sorg who could help uncover clues about the person’s identification.
— Read on www.unionleader.com/content/tncms/live/
Three young men are about to appeal against their convictions for killing or injuring infants by shaking them. The scientific community is split on the subject. So are the convictions sound?
— Read on www.smh.com.au/national/top-scientists-question-basis-for-victoria-s-baby-shaking-prosecutions-20210513-p57rkm.html
A former Dallas County prosecutor has surrendered his law license after the State Bar of Texas said he withheld evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of two men who spent 14 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of a pastor
— Read on abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/prosecutor-disbarred-wrongful-convictions-texas-77726550
FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends 