This is a real war on drugs being fought at the DEA and forensic crime labs. Fentanyl is 50 stronger than heroin.
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Fentanyl-like drugs are pouring in primarily from China, U.S. officials say
Posted in Crime, CSI, forensic toxicology
Tagged DEA forensics, fentanyl, US opioid deaths
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Disproportionate number of minorities in DNA databases misdirects cases
Here is a lede from the New York Legal Aid Society about the slowly trending use of racially skewed DNA bases being LEO searched for relatives of suspects. (More news below).
The limitations of familial DNA also made headlines in 2014 after Idaho police used familial searching on a private DNA database owned by Ancestry.com in an attempt to solve a 1996 murder case: the results falsely implicated an innocent man in New Orleans whose father had volunteered his DNA to a private, church-sponsored research database decades prior that was later bought by Ancestry.com.
More NYLegal Aid forensic info:
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Posted in DNA profiling, Forensic Science
Tagged CSI, DNA profiling, Forensic science
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Natl Institute of Standards and Tech, praising advances in DNA, leaves out bitemark rejection
NIST is the uber-arm of science in the world of the federal government and has a wide view on most things in our physical world. Its holiday post reflects on 2016’s triumphs and removal of some obsolete methods in forensics and traditional science disciplines.
They rave about forensic DNA profiling going to 20 genetic markers from 13.
I had to mention to them in the ‘comments’ that they left out bitemark identification’s failure to pass the science stress-test done by the President’s Council on Science and Technology.
NIST giving forth praise and scientific pride for the Xmas season. ‘Ideas Whose Time Has Come and Gone.’
Posted in AAFS, criminal justice reform, CSI, forensic science reform
Tagged Bad forensic science, Forensic science, NIST
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When flies besmirch the crime scene, this might avoid DNA mistakes
Interesting look at separating fly DNA from human DNA at a messy crime scene. Hopefully the fly crap can be separated out after the research is completed. There are cases where flyspecks (regurg and poop) are mis-identified as blood spatter and the flies can redeposit human blood sucked up from elsewhere (this National Geographic article on blow flies is gross and funny at the same time).
Posted in DNA mixtures, Forensic Science
Tagged fly poop at crime scenes, Forensic science
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Top Ten Forensic Articles in Dec 2016 for @CSIDDS
Looking back on the most popular articles published this month in Forensics in Focus. Thank you all for following!!
- The $2 drug tests are great for law enforcement drug warriors, but not much goo for anyone else.
- Utter silence from over 400 individual US crimes labs after forensic report
- A science-based blast at Prosecutors’ belief in alchemy voodoo and bitemarks .
- Excellent contributors. Houck, Lentini, Squier, Carrington and more…Pre Order at http://store.elsevier.com/Forensic-Science-Reform/isbn-9780128027196/ …
- Science in Forensics deniers mostly work for the Cops – No surprise
- Looking into Carbon 14 testing of blood samples.
- The cost of Austin Crime Lab failure reaches $6.5 to 14 Million estimate.
- Disappointed? American Academy of Forensic Science’s blurb on PCAST and scientific validation.
- American Academy of Forensic Sciences asks public for bitemark validation studies
- Calling out the LEO curmudgeons saying “Over-reaching and Junk Science is OK.“
Forensics: Making sure your employer get paid regardless…….
An insider look about genetic ‘counselors’ selling imperfect testing services and exaggerating results in order to stay employed. Hmm, the same might be said for police using junk drug testing kits from Kmart.
Interim Austin Crime Lab boss gets the boot; lab closed
Austin’s police chief apologized Friday for massive problems at the Police Department’s crime lab, saying he had ceased all efforts to reopen the DNA part of the troubled facility and had removed the man recently hired to get it back on track.
- Austin lab director hired in late November — at salary of $111,000 — demoted over concerns with academic record. my Statesman
The occasionally bizarre world of forensics in 2016 – Its a parallel universe
- Since bitemarks don’t work, let’s use them for exonerations. Some prosecutors are just beyond funny. This NDAA president’s recent illogical support saying bitemarks in criminal investigations and court are capable of determining whether a person is NOT guilty of violent crime is shockingly stupid. According to him that means the bitemarkers can tell the police who is innocent of crime. Just like DNA. Incredible.
- The Orange County California Prosecutor says now all is well in his kingdom and has invited the US Department of Justice to prove him right. He must not have read this.
- Ten weird forensic cases (long read) around the world.
- 10 Forensic myths perpetrated by CSI TV shows. The usual standard stuff.
- Bitemarks are still being taught in Texas (scroll down). For a minor fee: “Tuition is $14,500 plus travel, lodging and meal expenses, supplies and incidentals.” Classes.
- The FBI and DOJ Vow to Continue Using Junk Science Rejected by White House Report.
- The junk science wrongful convictions keep rolling in.
Prosecutors started to look at Austin PD DNA analyst 6 years ago
Its better late than never, I guess. Good example on how DA CIUs (conviction integrity units) get a bad rap. This Cleveland DA says some of them are just ‘news releases.’
“During that sexual assault trial, prosecutors wrote two memos saying that when they tried to pin Morales down on how she calculated DNA she had to call someone else in the lab for help. Prosecutors claimed the next morning she appeared to shift her answers about her calculations. The man on trial was sentenced to 42 years in prison on an assault charge, but was found not guilty of sexual assault by the jury.”
More on Forensic Expertise that is largely arbitrary and amatuerish
When someone learns PhotoShop, danger often enters the courtroom when methods and skill sets are loose and standard methods largely not compulsory. Experts in this field have a paucity of validation testing about what they bring in front of a jury. Largely its just opinion. I’ve heard all this before from the bitemarkers.
Its all about using digital rulers. Video comparisons to measure a suspect’s height leaves about 9 inches of doubt in this case.
Was the Robber 6-foot-3 or 5-foot-6?
From the Marshall Project
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bad forensic science, criminal justice, CSI, Forensic science, wrongful convictions
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