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News Release: Crime lab ‘scientist’s’ pushback against last week’s “Using Faulty Science” op-ed scientists Kafadar and Mazza
#Forensic Science : The good side of forensic reform advancement is this op-ed :
http://www.livescience.com/49929-faulty-forensic-science-failing-united-states-court-system.html .Its pathetic polar opposite follows below.
This deserves a special blog post this morning.
A new protector of forensic science integrity has emerged into public view. His rhetoric is familiar and attacks the op-ed I reposted last week from two researchers involved with forensic statistics and the National Academies of Science who wrote a news piece article which garnered alot of media attention.
On his blog, and once again, legitimate forensic science reform discussion turns into personal accusations of:
“fabricated narrative constructed by frustrated defense attorneys, grant-seeking academics, and justice reform activists who’ve gone largely unchallenged.”
The author continues later with this…
“Make no mistake, the 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the National Commission on Forensic Science (NCFS), both referenced by Kafadar and Mazza, became institutionalized animations of the fictional narrative.”
This responding article’s author’s short article joins the micro-pantheon of forensic experts who don’t think first nor research the data before they start writing about wrongful…
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News Release: Crime lab ‘scientist’s’ pushback against last week’s “Using Faulty Science” op-ed scientists Kafadar and Mazza
This deserves a special blog post this morning.
A new protector of forensic science integrity has emerged into public view. His rhetoric is familiar and attacks the op-ed I reposted last week from two researchers involved with forensic statistics and the National Academies of Science who wrote a news piece article which garnered alot of media attention.
On his blog, and once again, legitimate forensic science reform discussion turns into personal accusations of:
“fabricated narrative constructed by frustrated defense attorneys, grant-seeking academics, and justice reform activists who’ve gone largely unchallenged.”
The author continues later with this…
“Make no mistake, the 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the National Commission on Forensic Science (NCFS), both referenced by Kafadar and Mazza, became institutionalized animations of the fictional narrative.”
This responding article’s author’s short article joins the micro-pantheon of forensic experts who don’t think first nor research the data before they start writing about wrongful convictions and the pristine case history of forensic science within those cases. His hyperbole exudes absolutes and generalities such as …….
He goes on………
“Using Faulty Forensic Science, Courts Fail the Innocent”) demand more research in forensic science while ignoring one of the most significant studies on forensic science and erroneous convictions ever conducted.”
And on…..
“Forensic science errors were listed at the bottom of the reasons for wrongful convictions.”
He doesn’t have the academic wherewithal to provide a link to the original op-ed published by Live Science.
His thesis study list is composed of one 2012 article. Also not cited. A quick web search reveals a 2013 summary of a 2012 article by a Jon Gould Ph.D. It is titled “Study reveals 10 factors in wrongful convictions.”
Here are his “ten factors.”
10 Factors Identified in Wrongful Convictions
- State death penalty culture/state punitiveness
- Strength of prosecution’s case
- Prosecution withheld evidence (Brady violation)
- Forensic evidence errors
- Strength of defendant’s case
- Age of defendant
- Criminal history of defendant
- Intentional misidentification
- Lying by non-eyewitness
- Family witness testified on behalf of defendant
uhh, forensic science is not at the bottom.
In my closing, the 325 exoneration (mostly by DNA exclusion) cases litigated by the Innocence Projects are NOT fiction. Nor were they solely caused by ‘ineffective assistance of [defense] counsel.”
DNA should not be collected in misdemeanor cases – LA Times
This is an example when legislative intent leaves out common sense in its effects on ‘fighting crime.’
Less than three months ago, California voters adopted Proposition 47, an initiative that reduced six felonies to misdemeanors. By far, most of the affected crimes are for drug possession.
It’s not always easy to glean a clear statement from such a vote beyond the basic fact of it: Voters wanted those crimes to be treated as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Still, it’s a fairly safe assumption that voters wanted their criminal justice resources to be focused less on crimes they considered less serious, especially drug possession.
Full article is here.
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Monday’s ‘Quick Clicks” from the @wrongconvblog
Exoneree now has cancer, TV show about wrongful convictions hosted by exoneree Brian Banks, How to control overzealous prosecutors, another exoneree ‘sheds hatred’ and another DAs office sets up an ‘conviction integrity unit.”
Full article is here.
$9.2 Million Awarded in Wrongful Conviction that Underscores FBI Forensic Problems
Compensation costs of wrongful convictions keep spiraling up and up. This time its in DC.
February 28, 2015 – Yesterday Washington D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz ordered $9.2 million be paid by the District to Kirk L. Odom, 52, in compensation for more than 21 years of imprisonment after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1981 Capital Hill rape and burglary. The Washington Post reported (here) that “Odom is one of five D.C. men convicted of rape or murder whose charges have been vacated since 2009 because they were based on erroneous forensics and testimony by an elite unit of FBI hair experts.”
In his District-record award, the judge provided one formula for calculating compensation damages: $1,000 per day for wrongful incarceration, $250 per day for parole time and $200 for each day between his exoneration and trial. The article noted that Judge Kravitz’s opinion comes “as courts are coming to terms
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Junk Science takes a hit from the Mississippi Supreme Court : Plus real and fake forensic research
Followup from last blog. In late 2014, the Mississippi Supreme Court took a position about those among us who are demi-gods of forensic evidence.
Junk Science takes a hit from MS?? Incredible. Finally. There has been a very long forensic credibility battle in that state with its ex-non-certified pathologist at the epi-center. This battle includes bitemark convictions from his colleague Michael West.
Mississippi Supreme Court overturns conviction involving Steven Hayne, and Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Bacterial profiling from public hair. Real science. Has some limitations.
Max Houck, a lead forensic scientist at Consolidated Forensic Laboratory, a government organization based in Washington, D.C., agrees. But he also points out that it might be more difficult to use this method if there has been previous sexual contact between the victim and the subject, in the case of abusive ex-spouses, for example. “Human pubic hairs could be of potentially significant use in cases where the victim and subject have not had previous sexual contact.”
As opposed to this typical “forensic research”news release from it’s “Creator.”
100% accurate. OMG…
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Forensics and Crim Law : Self deluded US Federal courts and Prosecutors still ignore Junk Science
Don’t read this if you think “CSI” is real.
There is no better judicial micro-climate than Mississippi to study the self-contradictory and illegitimate misuse of unvalidated forensic opinions in the US. This story describes dubious forensic sciences experts and their untestable methods continuing to be used in courts. No surprise that bitemark ‘matching” (still supported by the ‘elite’ AAFS) is mentioned as a dangerous forensic method.
Read this from ‘The Watch’ by WP journalist/blogger Radley Balko.
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Faulty Forensic Science Failing US Court System – Op-Ed from Live Sciences
Two leaders in the field of forensic science are calling for an in-depth look into the validity and reliability of various forms of forensic evidence. They cite wrongful convictions as proof that forensic science is, in fact, a misnomer—that most forms of forensics actually have no scientific basis and therefore major reform around their use in the judicial process, as recommended by several federally appointed committees. – See more at:
“Karen Kafadar is Commonwealth Professor and chair of the Department of Statistics at the University of Virginia and a member of theForensic Science Standards Board. Anne-Marie Mazza is the director of the Committee on Science, Technology and Law of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors contributed this article to Live Science’sExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. ”
Comment: A vigorous statement from two ladies who know their scientific stuff. Article is here.
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“Forensics: The anatomy of crime” at the Wellcome Collection traces the art of forensic inquiry, spanning 18th-century Japanese artistic studies of decomposition to Victorian murder cases.”
Comment: These articles mention most of the major Brit cases from the 20th century where forensics played a part.
Article is here.
Video with another article is here.
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Forensics: Homicide vs accident: spatter expert testifies opinion about amount of blood necessary to be a homicide vs a
Nothing is more confusing to a jury then when an expert admits on cross exam that the evidence she received from the cops and DA was less than optimal. Yet she still agrees with the DA. Beyond a reasonable doubt.
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US Supreme Court Justices speak publicly about Criminal Justice conditions and ineffectiveness
WASHINGTON—Two Supreme Court justices told a House subcommittee Monday that the American criminal-justice system is too harsh, locks up too many people for too long and does so at an ultimate cost to public safety.
“This idea of total incarceration just isn’t working,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said, speaking at a House Appropriations Committee hearing to discuss the Supreme Court’s annual budget request. In many instances, he said, it would be wiser to assign offenders to probation and other supervised release programs.
The full WSJ article is here.
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