Serial rapists and underachieving government crime lab; cops as “super-experts”

Posted on October 13, 2016 by csidds

Image result for incompetent crime lab

“Did Failures at APD’s Crime Lab Lead to Sexual Assaults in Houston?” (Austin Chronicle)

A new Harvard Law Review article titled “The Judicial Presumption of Police Expertise” questions whether police should be treated as expert witnesses when giving testimony in criminal cases (The Crime Report). The police frequently “fill-in-the blanks” in prosecutorial theories of guilt. As in slanting determination of time of death based on “experience,” suspect “demeanor” at death scenes, etc.

One excerpt states: “From trials to suppression hearings to professional activities outside the courtroom, judges experienced multiple sites of unique exposure to the rhetoric and evidence of the police’s expert claims. These encounters primed judges to embrace police expertise not only through their deliberative doctrinal content, but also their many structural biases toward police knowledge. This development poses important and troubling consequences for the criminal justice system, exacerbating critiques of police judgment in the Fourth Amendment context and raising novel concerns about the limits of judicial reasoning about police practices.”

NYPD has yet to outfit any of their officers with body cameras despite a 2013 federal court ruling that ordered the implementation of a body camera pilot program in at least 5 NYPD precincts: “Envisioned as a tool to bolster police accountability, body cameras have faced pockets of resistance, from both police reform advocates and some law enforcement agencies and state legislatures. Reform advocates have cautioned that cameras could provide the police with new methods of surveillance that might erode personal privacy, while some law enforcement agencies have balked at the cost of storing so much data, and some states have added restrictions on public access to the footage.” (NY Times)

Thanks to the New York Legal Aid Society! @celiagivens is the best

Posted in Crime lab scandal, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, CSI, expert testimony | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, Anthropology, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

The underbelly of science vs police science arguments in the News

Posted on October 12, 2016 by csidds

Image result for underbelly meme

A former D.C. public defender has written an Op-Ed on Counterpunch.org titled, “Corrupted Evidence: How the Department of Justice is Blocking Forensic Evidence Reform”

“Junk Science? —Legal Experts Slam Reliability of Much Forensic Evidence in Criminal Trials” (Ground Report)

Thanks to the New York Legal Aid Society!

Posted in death penalty, forensic science reform, police crime labs, US Crime labs | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, Anthropology, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

Data search into the success of criminal appeals: Results are………..

Posted on October 12, 2016 by csidds

Arguments opposing innocence attach to a suspect when LEO investigators convince a prosecutor to file charges. It continues after either a plea bargain, which avoids the trial stage confirms guilt or a conviction after trial. The prosecutors’ response to any defendant’s appeal of a conviction contains a combination of admonishments supporting due process (i.e. legal technicalities) being present throughout all law enforcement and legal proceedings and a ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ amount of multiple types of evidence t proven to that level of certainty. In essence the DA response is a complete confirmation of guilt. Standards for a conviction to be reversed (i.e. vacated, overturned, quashed) are high and of course vary amongst the states and federal criminal system. Two states allow a failure of expert testimony via ‘junk science statutes’ to be substantial basis for a reversal. They are California and Texas. Most other states follow their collection of case law where the lawyers and judges from the past control the reins regarding forensic admissibility. That’s proven contrary to a number of those specific cases promulgating the use of bitemark matching, hair matching and bullet lead matching were later vacated due to DNA.

So what is the success rate of prosecutors sustaining their convictions after a plea or trial? Or conversely, how many appeals are successful in exonerating a defendant? If one is high and obviously the other must be very low.

At the outset of this inquiry, much of the outcome depends on definitions of ‘reversal on the merits’ and a few other legal terms. Those are covered below. Remember we are NOT talking about exonerations which are a court’s declaration of innocence and are numerically rare. The reversal of a conviction stills allows a prosecutor to retry the defendant. Under certain circumstances there is a limit limit to recharge a defendant based on a DA’s theory that guilt can still be proven. That’s clearing be shown in a high percentage of Innocence Project cases where the retry “intention” was the first words out of a prosecutors clearly showed in the media.

I was only able to find information from the US Court of Appeals 2d District. (Conn, New York, Vermont). There are 13 such Districts. Will it be representative to all the others?

My primary source is this from Prison Legal News titled: “What are the Odds of Complete Reversal after Conviction in the Second Circuit.” So at the get-go, we are looking at ONE jurisdiction of a court of appeals ONE geographical location.

Here’s what they found towards the end of their study:

“We were left with a list of 1,985 cases involving direct appeals from trial convictions in the Second Circuit between January 1, 2000 and May 31, 2013.2 It is often said that defendants are entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial, and so the percentage of complete reversals should reflect the percentage of cases in which appellate judges determined that the defendant did not receive a fundamentally fair trial. If the judges are guided by this rule, then it follows that they collectively believe that more than 96 percent of trials are fundamentally fair; our research reveals that over the 13 years we examined, the rate of complete reversals was approximately 3.78 percent.”

Under the section “reversal rates” they break down these quashing events according to specific judges and which judges who wrote opinions that were reversed.

OMG. Judge shopping is the last section.

Full article.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, Anthropology, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, complete conviction reversals, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

Desperate Wife Takes Husband’s Colon to Austria for poison testing

Posted on October 11, 2016 by csidds

Image result for suitcase cartoon

Desperate measures in forensic science occur all the time. I once carried an as yet unidentified ( an still unID’d) human skull on-board a flight to meet with the famous anthro Bill Maples in Florida. My Medical Examiner thought I was being quite resourceful and gave me full documentation to allow transport from his end of the jurisdictional chain of custody. The box fit quite well in the overhead. I was attending a forensic course and Bill (at the time he was “professor” to me) was most kind when I enthusiastically pulled the skull out of its container during his workshop on the subject of skeletal racial and sex determination. He probably just passed me off as a slightly over-keen odontologist but never skipped a beat. I don’t think the hotel maid ever looked in the box which was labeled “HUMAN REMAINS.” The statute of limitations have expired on any OSHA, DOJ, NTSB, HS, FBI, FDA, and CDC prosecutorial issues.

The stories of families’ acts to acquire forensic assistance seldom get told. Here is one example.

Her husband dies in Morocco after eating a meal. She suspects poison. After “professional” packaging, she flies with it to Austria. Customs gets a surprise at the airport.

“The woman, 35, who has not been publicly identified, packed the four-inch piece in her checked baggage on a flight to the southern Austrian city of Graz, where she and her husband, 40, had been living for eight years, said the lawyer, Anton Karner.”

Full story.

Posted in AAFS | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, Anthropology, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, physical anthropology, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

Fed Judge accepts self regulated forensics: “PCAST not regulatory”; forensic mistakes “low”

Posted on October 11, 2016 by csidds

Image result for k bone

To the real story. Its about…….crime labs and courts self-regulating themselves on scientific issues rather than the 2016 PrEsiDEnTiAl ELEctiOn.

Image result for self regulated

All those “selfie” factors on the left are spot on. I wish for a figure 2 to measure the incidence of errors within a self-regulated industry, such as the criminal justice industry. Wait, try this one below, which reflects what PCAST, knowing the forensic’s industry exemplary values, expected to facilitate. Apparently, we haven’t got to a consensus on step one (far left box) as yet. Seven years after it all this started.

I’ve written a bit on the PCAST/NAS (2009) continued messaging to the forensic ‘matching’ police sciences who live partly in the past (i.e. case law precedent of admissibility) and strongly favor it when outsiders tread in their direction. Federal Rules of Evidence interpretations, however, are becoming more responsive to the “concept” of validation testing vs just listening to a bunch of people who agree with themselves due to employment needs. It is developing into a ‘trickle-down’ type of thing.

These ‘treaders’ have repeatedly explained that wrongful convictions have been aided by some of these “comparison-method” believers. Hair, biter, various arson, blood and other patterns, and lead ballistics rank heavily in the misuse, misapplication and overbearing confidence levels that police experts developed for legal, not scientific, presentations. The only self-regulated exclusion of flawed comparison-methods are with hair and bullet-lead composition when the FBI eventually admitted its’ examiners over-sold their wares.

Its ironic that they all, at one time or another, were cloaked with “cutting-edge” assurances currently in use against PCAST.

Speaking of the forensic science industry in its entirety, all the numerous forensic commissions may be having little systemic effect. Forensics is/are still unregulated by any umbrella entity immune to political influences from all these multiple stakeholders. Just look at how the AAFS recently passes the buck by declining substantive input on PCAST questions and suggestions promoting better scientific veracity.

Please note that, in the attached judge ruling mentioning and dismissing the PCAST opinion on ballistic ‘matching’ as being only a “forecast” of suggested forensic improvements, he lays his ruling denying exclusion of the “toolmark” (read as ‘ballistics’) issue of the case with this reasoning………..

“PCAST did find one scientific study that met its requirements (in addition to a number of other studies with less predictive power as a result of their designs). That study, the “Ames Laboratory study,” found that toolmark analysis has a false positive rate between 1 in 66 and 1 in 46. Id. at 110. The next most reliable study, the “Miami-Dade Study” found a false positive rate between 1 in 49 and 1 in 21. Thus, the defendants’ submission places the error rate at roughly 2%. The Court finds that this is a sufficiently low error rate to weigh in favor of allowing expert testimony.”

Two studies.

Only part of forensic solutions offered from PCST/NAS are the development of known ‘error rates.’ This is nothing new as this rhetoric was born into the US legal system by the 1993 Daubert trilogy.

Read the three page ruling and see what else the judge misses. Here’s a hint:

“Questions about the strength of the inferences to be drawn from the analysis of the examiners presented by the government may be addressed on cross-examination.”

I think the Babylonians and Greeks developed the principle of cross-ex which: “………allude[s] to the almost supernatural power of the experienced trial lawyer-the power to confront and break the false witness.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

Disappointed? Am Academy of Forensic Sciences blurb on PCAST and forensic validation

Posted on October 10, 2016 by csidds

[Comments] and bold emphasis are mine. In summary, I call it misleading in certain important aspects. As Max Houck says in this re Tweet,

Crime lab debate misses the point and culprits. Lab is political football AND under-resourced. [from this “Our View” article]

Full AAFS “Policy Report about PCAST.

The American Academy of Forensic Sciences is a multi-disciplinary professional organization with a major objective of improving practice within the field of forensic science.

[This group also accepts the bitemark group as a ‘certified’ forensic discipline]

The organization recognizes the need for improvement, where needed, and view the findings in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report as notice of needed validation and improvement.

[“where needed” implies some of this group do not recognize how wrongful convictions, the Innocent Projects, and the National registry of Exonerations have produced significant data on where the “need” is located.]

While the Academy does not endorse every statement within the PCAST report,

[more confabulation revealing nothing specific on the validation issues in forensics covered in the 175 pg PCAST report. The AAFS in 2009 adopted a multi-dimensional agreement list specifically supporting MANY of the forensic findings of the National Academy of Sciences. ]

we appreciate the efforts of PCAST to clarify the scientific meaning of validity with respect to feature comparison analysis. Several Academy members were invited to present information to PCAST and other members supplied comments concerning research and current practices.

PCAST was given an enormous task with time restrictions to review very broad subjects and may not have had the opportunity to evaluate additional information for inclusion in the report.

[This comes straight from the police oriented crime lab people who are the ones doing all the physical evidence “comparing” in the US criminal justice system. This response mirrors similar rhetoric used by other disclaimers of the PCAST report.]

The PCAST report is an important start to the discussion of scientific validity

[this is a total misrepresentation of the timeline of these issues involving forensic accuracy, forensic experts and validity]

You can do the rest of this while recovering from last night’s election “debate.”

and we look forward to continuing that discussion with the larger community of forensic science practitioners.As PCAST has conducted its work on assessments of scientific validity, the Academy, the National Commission on Forensic Science, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Institute of Justice, and others within the forensic science community have been working to improve standards, training, quality control, oversight, and other necessary components of forensic science services. We look forward to integrating the work of PCAST into the overall efforts to strengthen forensic science.We particularly welcome PCAST joining our call for increased funding for empirical research supporting all of the forensic sciences. The commitment of major research funds is essential to achieve further evaluation of method validity. The entire membership of our organization has a vested interest in strengthening forensic science and promoting its more rigorous use in the justice system. For our 7000 members, forensic science is not just a major or a career; it is commitment to a way of building knowledge and determining the truth to support the pursuit of justice for all. We recognize that science only advances with transparency, openness, and a commitment to the scientific method. This is our cause and we welcome all who join us to increase the scientific knowledge that supports our contributions to the justice system.

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASCLDAAFS, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

The Donald on #forensic criminal justice – De Niro and Petro – Groping vs Central Park 5 rape

Posted on October 8, 2016 by csidds

Donald Trump still not needing no DNA regarding the Central Park 5 case and his unrequited stupidity “and worse” are the topics today. Plus, he’s an “idiot” according to actor Robert De Niro. Play the De Niro 0.55 video here.

Somewhere in the archives the Trumper said these 5 wrongfully convicted should have been executed. He is self-servingly less vindictive but is equally defiant regarding sexual groping penalties. As some have said, being a ‘malignant narcissist,’ he gives himself a ‘pass’ but flunks Forensics 101.

From the get-go, you should know that the Central Park 5 were all later exonerated by rape kit DNA and the actual serial rapist was much later convicted. No telling how many other rapes he committed before finally being identified.

Nancy Petro at the Wrongful Conviction Blog.

“Trump’s Insistence that Central Park 5 are Guilty Reveals Frightening Ignorance and Worse”

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Nancy Petro | 1 Comment

Donald Trump doesn’t acknowledge wrongful convictions proven by DNA and by the credible, delayed confession of a convicted murderer and rapist. Insisting on Friday that the Central Park 5 are guilty of the 1989 high-profile horrific attack and rape of an investment banker jogging in Central Park, he revealed he knows nothing about DNA, the dynamics of false confessions, or contemporary understandings relating to criminal justice and wrongful convictions. Full article.

Posted in AAFS | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, donald trump forensic science, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

Science vs Forensics – Podcast on Bugs, Bitemark “Whack-A-Mole” and Bungled Fingerprints

Posted on October 7, 2016 by csidds

Science Vs

This jazzy podcast is worth the time to take a look. I’d give it an ‘A’ for lay people and students interested in the ‘semi to non’ science presently used in forensic practice..

Here is a commercial “Science Vs’ program (@sciencevs: Self-described as “A podcast that pits fads against everything else.” Hosted by @wendyzuk) develops the story of these forensic specialties.

The podcast runs 26 minutes. Forensic bugs come up first, after an advert for an online clothing company and another at the half-way mark. The show’s narrator is a quippy Aussie lady who keeps the listener engaged. She chortles a bit over bitemarks having started in the Texas with some burglary cheese evidence.

The bug researcher is interesting in describing her and others’ work at a ‘body farm’ relating to variables present in environmental and chemical influences on dating bug populations on deceased and occasionally still living people. She says that if a criminal case hinges on the time of death from bugs, it must be ‘a weak case’ in need of more powerful facts.

The bitemark portion begins about 11 min into the show and contains interviews both Chris Fabricant of the NY Innocence Project and retired L.A. Sheriff Crime lab director Barry Fisher. Fisher describes why human skin is not a reliable material for tooth comparing. The narrator and Fabricant pose the content of recent ‘real science’ and professional bitemark debunking the National Academy of Science and President’s Council of Science/Tech. During his interview, Fabricant receives a phone call about a Pennsylvania death penalty trial where a DA is planning to use presumably an ABFO bitemark dentist to testify to a bite ‘match.’ He comments that that opposing the use of this testimony throughout the US is analogous to playing “whack-a-mole” sometimes without the “whack.”

At the 18: minute mark the show enters the realm of obtaining fingerprints from a crime scene by Barry Fisher who includes how fingerprints ultimately end up being ‘matched’ by humans. A telling fact is that the US has no “minimum match value” when they reach a result. Brandon Mayfield’s false FBI print positive ID is featured. This flies in the face of higher standards as in Spain which ultimately overturned Mayfield’s accusers despite similarities that “were not really there.” Cognitive bias in forensics is then included by Itel Dror explanation that”smart people do stupid things” and the “biased snowball effect.”

Also See: A brilliant cautionary tale on Fingerprints and their Scientific Uncertainty | The AAFS/ABFO dentists should read this | @csidds

Finally, its all about hair. This is where the FBI really flubbed up. Then Professor Patrick Buzzini does his thing on the subject.

In all of this, the shows’ end game shows some of these methods have sent defendants to prison and execution. Then PART 2 is coming up about “touch” DNA and some more hard questioning in two weeks.

Posted in AAFS | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, hair, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, science vs, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

The horror of the missing and unidentified focuses on the Mexican Border

Posted on October 7, 2016 by csidds

Dental Identification Logo

There is a few things to be said on this subject here starting with, in my opinion [ along with others connected with Missing Persons investigations], that the number of unidentified human remains in the US are a massive ‘cold case.’ Notable in the attached Texas Tribune article is its’ mention that inter-agency communication is poor. I can attest to that amongst certain governmental entities.

NAMUS is solving some of that along with agencies like CA DOJ MissingAndUnidentifiedUnit and this CA POST [police investigator training] white paper on the subject.

This article talks about the effort in Southern Texas and what little funding is available for investigators. The Texas Forensic Science Commission is taking this fact to the press.

[ excerpt ]

Lack of Money Hinders Effort to ID Remains of Migrants Near the Border

“Shoestring budgets and bureaucratic hurdles are preventing some of the state’s top researchers and forensic experts from identifying hundreds of the remains found on or near the Texas border, members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission said Wednesday.”

Posted in AAFS | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, missing persons, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, unidentified US migrants, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

He said, she said, she sues in ballistics lab worker’s defamation case.

Posted on October 6, 2016 by csidds

Image result for defamation

This civil case brought by a Georgia crime lab examiner shows us most of the issues surrounding usage of expert opinion certainties of “a match” versus news quotes from other experts and the media’s reporting that must be considered “malicious” according to the law. Its all about “science” in forensics which the #PCAST report took to task.

(Excerpt)

Tobin [quoted in the news; not the actual GBI examiner] also said that firearms analysts who render conclusions with certainty, as Desmond [the GBI examiner] had done in court, are almost always lacking scientific basis and “could be misleading or could be misinterpreted.”

Posted in AAFS | Tagged AAFS, ABFO, ADA, ASCLD, ASFO, bias, bite mark, bite marks, bitemark, bitemark analysis, bitemark evidence, bitemark testimony, Bitemarks, board certified dentist, comparison confirmation bias, David Sheets, DNA, Dr. Greg Golden, Dr. L.T. Johnson, Dr. Michael Bowers, Dr. Michael West, Dr. Robert Barsley, Dr. roger Metcalf, Elsevier, exoneration, expert opinion, forensic, Forensic Dental Evidence, forensic dentist, forensic dentistry, forensic odontologist, Forensic Odontology, Forensic science, homicide case, Humberto Leal, Innocence partners, innocence project, Innocent, Investigator's Handbook, JADA, Kennedy Brewer, Kunco, Leal, Leigh Stubbs, Levon Brooks, Mary Bush, Michael bowers, Michael West, Mississippi Innocence, NAS National Academy of Science, National District Attorney Association, National Forensic Science Foundation, observer effects, Odontology, PCAST, Peter Bush, Ray Krone, Ray Miller, reliability research, Saliva, screening film, starks, Stinson, surveillance video, theIAI.org, toolmark, University of Buffalo, UV photography, validity, West, Wisconsin, wrongful conviction, wrongful convictions, wrongfully convicted | Leave a comment

FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends

Serial rapists and underachieving government crime lab; cops as “super-experts”

The underbelly of science vs police science arguments in the News

Data search into the success of criminal appeals: Results are………..

Desperate Wife Takes Husband’s Colon to Austria for poison testing

Fed Judge accepts self regulated forensics: “PCAST not regulatory”; forensic mistakes “low”

Disappointed? Am Academy of Forensic Sciences blurb on PCAST and forensic validation

The Donald on #forensic criminal justice – De Niro and Petro – Groping vs Central Park 5 rape

Science vs Forensics – Podcast on Bugs, Bitemark “Whack-A-Mole” and Bungled Fingerprints

The horror of the missing and unidentified focuses on the Mexican Border

Lack of Money Hinders Effort to ID Remains of Migrants Near the Border

He said, she said, she sues in ballistics lab worker’s defamation case.

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