Forensic scandal of bitemark believers widens from horrible to worse. If that’s even possible.

The status of the American  Board of Forensic Odontology sinks further into the swamp of discredit as the number of wrongful bite aided mis identifications in criminal cases increases to 26 in the United States.

Plus the State of Texas may soon take a look at a case rife with false bitemark testimony which led to an execution.

Just added are more denials of methodology failures by its president Dr. Gary Berman, and obvious malfeasance by its Executive Committee ignoring its own Policies and Procedures. They regularly block its general membership from participating in reorganizing the obvious faults and public  misrepresentations  made by a handful of its “officers.”

WashPost October 22, 2015

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, costs of wrongful convictions, criminal justice reform, death penalty | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Indiscriminate police use of private DNA databases makes a mess for innocent people.

I can’t wait to hear how law enforcement tries to clean up this seemingly uncontrolled use of personal genetic material over 1 million customers have sent to familial DNA companies like Ancestry.com.

“Anyone who knows the science understands that there’s a high rate of false positives,” says Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor and the author of Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA. The searches, after all, look for DNA profiles that are similar to the perpetrator’s but by no means identical, a scattershot approach that yields many fruitless leads, and for limited benefit. In the United Kingdom, a 2014 study found that just 17 percent of familial DNA searches “resulted in the identification of a relative of the true offender.”

Wired

ThinkProgress

Fusion.net

Thanks to @CeliaGivens Here’s her cartoon about this at the DNA Newsletter

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New DC Crime lab management, mayor and DA adopt measures their previously fired director were denied

The story is typical. Government politics always has a sunny side when those triumphant over their opposition adopt upgrades and staffing they had refused to allow the previous admin.

Not unlike the Romans proclaiming a peace settlement with the Visigoths after having conquered them.

The PR department for DC Depart of Public Safety (DPS) just ran out a report on how well the “reconstructed after many mistakes” and now “less” independent crime lab is doing since the DC mayor and District attorney canned its director and legal counsel earlier this year. Lets not get into who the DA’s girlfriend works for.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/10/14/how-funds-will-help-turn-dcs-department-of-forensic-sciences-around-part-i/#.ViOvwx1VRvM.twitter

According to the DPS ex-crime lab director, Max Houck, the victors are weaving a web of smoke and  re-written history.

“DFS was installing same LIMS for DNA before the firings; Mgt asked MB for additional $ and staff; refused. Why now?” @maxmhouck. 

Previous articles:

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Its time for CA to stand up to junk forensic science in its courts #XONR8

  AG Kamala Harris A former prosecutor Judge found Bill Richards innocent 6 years ago!  

http://californiainnocenceproject.org/read-their-stories/william-richards/

 

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Unreasonable minds in Forensics : Taking on the deniers of scientific justice.

This is an addition to yesterday’s CSIDDS post……

This new post [ taken from David Averill’s 2012 publication “A response to a critic of the bitemark critics.” ] takes you to the source of the Bitemarker Nation.

Be ready to travel to  a very unprofessional place.

 

The author of the website http://www.bitemark.org posted an article regarding the admissibility of bitemark evidence in several cases in Texas, and spent some time discussing the supposedly ‘asinine’ nature of applying experimental scientific methodology to forensic science. The article makes the point that the scientific method should not apply to some disciplines, as they are not ‘hard’ sciences, like physics and chemistry. This commentary represents an example of why critics of forensic science find these disciplines particularly frustrating, in that they attempt to justify their forensic practice on the basis that they are somehow ‘different’ or ‘immune’ to good scientific practice. But there is no logical reason why forensic science and the scientific method should be mutually exclusive….. Read more by clicking on the PDF below

Open PDF by clicking  a-response-to-a-critic-of-the-critics-2 Written by Mark Page BDS, PhD

 

 

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Bitemarker now claims to be “technical” expert to avoid courtroom scrutiny. 

The ABFO bitemark mouthpiece of legal wisdom lays a new egg within this WaPo article continuing news about the 26th exoneration from junk dental testimony. He espouses a strange brew of bitemark admissibility that leaves judges out of the role of applying Rules of Scientific Evidence before allowing it to be brought before a jury. Brilliant move on his part. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/13/texas-mans-conviction-overturned-after-bite-mark-evidence-discredited/

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bad Forensic Science, Bitemarks, criminal justice reform, Forensic Science Bias, wrongful convictions | 2 Comments

Dallas man released at exoneration hearing

The judge baked a pumpkin pie before vacating his 25 year old conviction and incarceration. The dentist responsible says his “science” has changed. 

There never was any science. 

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/10/dallas-county-man-freed-after-serving-25-years-for-murder-over-faulty-science-of-bite-marks.html/

Posted in AAFS, ABFO, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, criminal justice reform, exoneration, Exoneration costs | Leave a comment

Another bitemarker admits his 1989 “1 to a million” ID opinion was junk. 

Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 12.35.57

More info from Forensic Dentistry Online, including photos and trial transcript.
http://www.forensicdentistryonline.org/1-in-a-million-bitemark-case-looks-to-fail-another-wrongful-conviction-overturned/

csidds's avatarFORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends

This exoneration litigation has a hearing today [Monday October 12, 2015] in Dallas. This makes the second bitemark dentist in two weeks to recant his own testimony. This new dentist, said in an affidavit,

“Conclusions that a particular individual is the biter and their dentition is a match when you are dealing with an open population are now understood to be scientifically unsound,” [Hales said.]

This statement rejecting a bitemark comparison in “an open population” [of suspects] is a term concocted and promulgated by his bitemark org, the AAFS/ABFO, to continue to deceive in their hope to use their “magic” in a “closed” population of suspects. Using simpler language, when the cops tell an ABFO bitemarker [BTW, not all of them “do” bitemark cases ] that the crime only has two or a “few” possible suspects, this “dentists with guns” group can…

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Another bitemarker admits his 1989 “1 to a million” ID opinion was junk. 

This exoneration litigation has a hearing today [Monday October 12, 2015] in Dallas. This makes the second bitemark dentist in two weeks to recant his own testimony. This new dentist, said in an affidavit,

“Conclusions that a particular individual is the biter and their dentition is a match when you are dealing with an open population are now understood to be scientifically unsound,” [Hales said.]

This statement rejecting a bitemark comparison in “an open population” [of suspects] is a term concocted and promulgated by his bitemark org, the AAFS/ABFO, to continue to deceive in their hope to use their “magic” in a “closed” population of suspects. Using simpler language, when the cops tell an ABFO bitemarker [BTW, not all of them “do” bitemark cases ] that the crime only has two or a “few” possible suspects, this “dentists with guns” group can still point the guilty finger at the “real biter.” Its all about ABFO voodoo and spin.

THE RUB; To further their agenda, they bypass the fact that all the limitations [ as in no empirical research to support ] and inaccuracies which exist in “open” and “closed” are exactly the same. This pl0y keeps them in the “game.” Usually its in child abuse cases, where their level of reliable accuracy, certainty and bitemark details are abysmal.

As someone smarter than me recently said [ I think it was a federal judge quoting Thoreau ], “Don’t expect agreement from someone whose job depends on disagreeing with you.”

Dallas News

Washington Times

 

 

 

Posted in Bite Marks, Bitemarks, criminal justice reform, junk forensic science | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Georgia Chief ME steps down over double-dipping during state employment and strange testimony

This is really a messed up deal in Georgia. 60 yo forensic pathologist quits while under investigation.

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hair

And this is what happens when non science police-derived “forensic methods” are really junk. “5 Investigates: Review of old forensic hair cases begins.” (Boston).

“CPCS [ the Public Defenders Office] is pleased that the lab has begun its review of cases and looks forward to moving on to the next phase of this collaborative hair review project in partnership with the Middlesex DA’s office and the New England Innocence Project,” Kavanaugh said in a statement.

In an interview last May, Kavanaugh said it is “quite possible that innocent people are in prison due to flawed forensic testimony that came out of the Massachusetts State Police crime lab.”

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