From the man who is bringing arson investigations into a science-based method using chemistry, physics, thermodynamics and testing. Unfortunately there are hiccups in finding $ and any police who have a science background. Full article.
Omaha prosecutor warns defense attorneys about recent glitches in the local police lab. Its a bad day for infallibility of fingerprints and guns. Full article.
“According to testimony and evidence revealed in a trial late last year, the analyst allegedly filled in the gaps in poor-quality, incomplete genetic evidence. She generated two complete genetic profiles, and both were sent off as definitive test results to the state’s offender tracking database, something that would not have been allowed with the original, lower-quality DNA evidence.” Full article.
One thirds of all murders in US go unsolved. Decades ago, murder clearance rates were 90%. Factors discussed. Maybe too much money going to pot busts? Full article
“Can’t fix the system’s use of forensic science without fixing the science.” By Peter Neufeld. Major examples he uses includes the 2 dozen failed cases performed by the AAFS’s forensic dentistry’s elite bitemark experts.
Ex-AAFS president Barry Fisher has a thing to say about better truthtelling by experts who rarely expound on the weaknesses of their “expertism.” He says it would give judges a better chance to catch the “quacks.” A read of Peter Neufeld’s op-ed clarifies why Mr. Fisher’s “explain it better” method would not reach the 95% of criminal cases which use plea deals to avoid trial.
Ray Krone was convicted to death on bogus forensic science. The expert still refuses to admit any regrets. Read how 3 exonorees have coped with freedom.
“A team of 50 forensic workers face a daunting scene: a vast stretch of debris scattered over treacherous mountain ridges that can only be accessed with the help of climbing gear and a cadre of mountaineers.”
Thus far about 500 fragments of passengers have been recovered.
Famous forensic pathologist from Ferguson does another TV lecture. This time its on mass disasters. Michael Baden MD
A remarkably sad, infuriating and frustrating ordeal one man in California prison has experienced for 22 years is winding up in intensity. William Richards’ 1997 murder conviction in San Bernardino had been overturned by a habeas corpus hearing in 2010, but ultimately failed in the face of appeals by a recalitrant District Attorney’s Office bent on maintaining its zero stats on wrongful convictions [i.e the finality of conviction].
A core challenge on Richards’ appeal has been faulty and admittedly mistaken opinions of fact and certainty by a pair of forensic dentists.
New California law is now in place making the judicial system subject to considering real- time issues of forensic reform and faulty forensic trial testimony will soon be tested by the CA Supreme Court. Up to this point, Richards’ previous appeal efforts had been blanked out by the CA SC holding agreeing with the DA’s objections, considered by some as the ‘worst Supreme Court decision in 2012.’
Alissa Bjerkhoel is a staff attorney at the California Innocence Project and this is her presentation given at the 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences about William Richards’ decades long litigation. Beware: Actual crime science photos are within.
Disgruntled legal thinkers wrangling about interpretations and policies are not limited to the US. Some make things SO complicated when their fiefdoms are at stake.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission of England and Wales (Scotland has their own Commission) has been the subject of a recent inquiry by the UK Parliament’s Select Justice Committee (see here). The inquiry received 47 written submissions and heard oral evidence from a select group of experts, lawyers and campaigners on miscarriages of justice. The Committee today released it’s highly critical report that can be read here…. It made a series of recommendations including increased funding from government, but also that the CCRC ‘relax’ it’s narrow interpretation of the ‘real possibility’ test when referring cases back to the Court of Appeal. There have been media reports highlighting the critical tone of the report:
The report concluded:
19. We conclude that the CCRC is performing its functions reasonably well, and we have identified areas…
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“Late last month, the National Registry of Exonerations reported that the United States had 125 exonerations in 2014, a record high. One of the report’s findings was that 67 of those exonerations – or 54 percent – “were obtained at the initiative or with the cooperation of law enforcement.” The Marshall Project asked a prosecutor to walk us through a case where his office was presented with evidence suggesting an innocent man had been convicted. The following was written by Mark Larson, the chief criminal deputy of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Seattle, Wash. Larson reviews all innocence claims for the office.”
Full article here.
Then here is the counterpoint posted by Phil Locke @wrongconvblog a few weeks ago.
Kudos to those who have found this blog worthwhile. I find the general public and attorneys involved in criminal defense are the most interested. Absolutely no response from the ‘dark side’ of forensic science which has been my niche topic for these 2 years. They hide in plain sight and simmer, I suppose.
Best to all those asking the good questions!
Let’s see if any US or UK appellate courts pay attention to this PBS review of a mythological ‘forensic science.’ Its doubtful any judge wants to weigh in as to what is ‘junk’ versus substantiated expert testimony. Its neither in their culture or their training to do so.
Last evening (3/23/15), PBS aired a segment that takes a critical look at the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome. The story features Kate Judson, who is the Innocence Network SBS Litigation Fellow, and who has been doing phenomenal work in not only helping those wrongfully convicted of SBS, but also in trying to bring the medical and legal communities together to achieve a true scientific understanding of the causes and symptoms.
See the 10 minute video here.
From the SunTimes.com:
The Thursday jailhouse phone call began not much different than usual.
“How’s your day going?” the inmate’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner, asked.
“Pretty much like any other day in prison,” replied Alprentiss Nash, a 37-year-old Chicago man who’s spent the last 17 years in prison professing his innocence.
“ ‘Well, you’re going to be a free man tomorrow,’ I told him,” said Zellner. “He just started yelling and shouting and praising God. It was great.”
Nash is expected to walk out of the Menard Correctional Center in downstate Menard at 11 a.m. Friday–a day after prosecutors with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office went to court and asked a judge to vacate murder charges against him.
Convicted in January 1997 of the 1995 armed robbery and murder of Leon Stroud in his West Pullman home, Nash becomes the first person ever to have his murder conviction…
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