Forensics: Right to cop fingerprint and DNA matching databases can exonerate the innocent – often DAs object

Posted on June 25, 2020 by csidds

This article talks about cops refusal and unfair prosecutorial objections to defendants having access to fingerprint search data owned by the police. The cop alternative is for defs to “trust” the police. What a joke. We should also include access to the dozens many cop-controlled DNA sites.

Every state should give defendants the right to have crime scene fingerprints compared with prints in government databases.
— Read on www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-24/fingerprints-crimes-database-exoneration-convictions

Posted in AAFS, Civil rights, costs of wrongful convictions, Crime lab scandal, fingerprints, forensic evidence exaggeration, Forensic Science Bias, forensic science misconduct | Leave a comment

Forensics: Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm – The New York Times

Posted on June 25, 2020 by csidds

When the cops get new toys, this is what happens: BS predictive science misused and touted as “tough on crime ”

In what may be the first known case of its kind, a faulty facial recognition match led to a Michigan man’s arrest for a crime he did not commit.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/facial-recognition-arrest.html

Posted in AAFS, Civil rights, costs of wrongful convictions, forensic evidence exaggeration, Forensic Science Bias, forensic science misconduct, junk forensic science | Leave a comment

Forensics: Bottled water made by Whole Foods has high levels of arsenic, Consumer Reports says – The Washington Post

Posted on June 24, 2020 by csidds

Ten parts per million is the limit. This crap is at 9.56ppm.

Starkey Spring Water has been flagged in the past for arsenic levels just under or exceeding the federal threshold.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/24/whole-foods-bottled-water-arsenic/

Posted in AAFS, forensic pathology, Forensic Science | Leave a comment

Forensics: GA judge grants Columbus couple new trial in infant death

Posted on June 24, 2020 by csidds

The long road to exoneration.

The Georgia Supreme Court has reversed a Columbus couple’s convictions and life sentences in the 2008 death of their infant daughter. Ashley and Albert Debelbot were found guilty of murder in 2009.
— Read on amp.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/crime/article240737036.html

Posted in AAFS, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice, Medical errors | Tagged | Leave a comment

Forensics: The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles

Posted on June 23, 2020 by csidds

Forensic fraud by The Trump Administration which Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles
— Read on www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-paid-millions-for-test-tubes-and-got-unusable-mini-soda-bottles/amp

Posted in AAFS, Bad Forensic Science, Crime lab scandal, forensic evidence exaggeration, forensic misconuct, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias, forensic science misconduct, junk forensic science | Leave a comment

Forensics: Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings

Posted on June 22, 2020 by csidds

This is huge. I wonder if the #AAFS has enough huevos to do something similar.

More than 1,400 researchers have signed a letter calling on the discipline to stop working on predictive-policing algorithms and other models.
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01874-9

Posted in AAFS, Civil rights, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice reform, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias, US Crime labs | Leave a comment

Forensics: San Jose man not guilty in death-penalty child killing case

Posted on June 22, 2020 by csidds

Its all about DNA mixture software interpretation. Sound familiar? San Jose man not guilty in death-penalty child killing case
— Read on www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/19/death-penalty-case-jury-finds-san-jose-man-not-guilty-in-2016-child-killing/amp/

Posted in AAFS, criminal justice, death penalty, DNA mixtures, DNA profiling, forensic evidence exaggeration, prosecutorial misconduct, US Crime labs | Leave a comment

Forensics: Undercounting Those Killed by the N.Y.P.D. – The New York Times

Posted on June 19, 2020 by csidds

Here’s where forensics and politics show their dark-side. Who has the final say? Read on…..

A never-released report shows that the number of people killed by police activity in New York is more than twice what has been reported.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/police-involved-deaths-new-york-city.html

Posted in AAFS, criminal justice reform, CSI, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias, human rights violations, police custody deaths | Leave a comment

Forensics: Floyd’s autopsy makes medical examiner a rare target of anger – StarTribune.com

Posted on June 19, 2020 by csidds

As usual, the politicos screwed the pooch on this. Prosecutors’ release of Dr. Andrew Baker’s preliminary findings highlighting other factors in George Floyd’s death led to a storm of criticism that defense attorneys say is unfair.
— Read on www.startribune.com/floyd-s-autopsy-makes-medical-examiner-a-rare-target-of-anger/571343522/

Posted in AAFS, Crime, CSI, expert testimony, forensic pathology, Forensic Science | Leave a comment

Forensics: Drilling down on Cognitive and Human Factors in Expert Decision Making: Six Fallacies and the Eight Sources of Bias

Posted on June 15, 2020 by csidds

Too bad this has a purchase firewall. Abstract inly.
— Read on pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00704

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice, expert testimony, facial recognition, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias | Leave a comment