This comes from Rob Warden, the emeritus director of the National Registry of Exonerations. Note the regular posting of FiF will come out tomorrow.
Chris Coleman 2014 Exoneration
March 10, 2014 Forensics in Focus Don’t forget I tweet @csidds on all sorts of issues and events.
FORENSICS: National disaster of untested rape kits. Celebrity interest in this forensic disaster that affects thousands and thousand of crime victims
FORENSICS: MN. $500K pays for 600 cold case tests. 400K untested US rape kits = $400 – 500M.
Australia: Besides having a raging drought, crime lab has a slow ballistics’ turnaround in a jurisiction named WAGGA
Personal stories of people dedicated to achieving a more balanced and fair US criminal justice system.
Back from the Dead. Conn Crime Lab Humming After Years Of Disarray . Uh, new manager is from Boston’s crime lab. He left in 2012.
Your US tax money for prosecutors, prisons, marshals, a little for defense attorneys, law enforcement, public safety, a blip for forensic research and Abrams tanks.
MS cold DNA case. Only evidence indicating physical contact. “DNA can’t determine when and how it was transferred.”
FLA death penalty law very broad. One DA outpaces all others x 5.
DAs object to vigorous public ‘confrontation” by Judge Kozinski. They would prefer a less media available forum.
State oversight hoped on rape cases in W.Va. as legislature passes bill to monitor evidence
No militia means more intrusive law enforcement: Column
Incoming! Backyard ‘bang bang’ ranges Ok in FLA.
nonSWAT: Unsolved US murders = 200K. Increases 6K a year. Local LEOs manage most all investigations.
SWAT: Good shoot. Officers Cleared in Columbia City SWAT Shooting Inquest
FORENSICS: Inter-agency research on sequential vs simultaneous suspect presentation to eye wits.
FORENSICS: FLA buggy Motorola fingerprint ID system in disarray – Cost$$$
77 yo MD selling drug samples gets convicted and probation.
March 6, 2014.
To date we have received over 4,000 views in the 8 months since being first published. Thanks to all of you for following!! There are also, 900+ tweets from @csidds that form a daily adjunct to this blog.
A true tragedy exposes the back room deceit in the Todd Willingham arson execution in TX. Described in this article as a “smoking pistol.”
Notable repostings of FiF articles
“A breath of fresh air” about bitemarks. From the Charles Smith blog site in Canada. He references a “Forensics in Focus” article.
Forensic experts
Wily and cunning experts in the UK better watch out. Judges boot out those who do nothing more than guess.
Crime lab woes continue
Prosecutors promise thorough review of still active cases involving a state crime lab worker caught stealing drugs from FDLE facility. Older cases may take alot longer. Defense attorney has doubts regarding thoroughness of this unilateral process and assurances of “full disclosure.”
” Drowning” crime lab.
Want to “whistle-blow” about a crime lab? You might want to read this.
Mass. crime lab fiasco will “never happen again.”
Costs to taxpayers for wrongful convictions: in various states
You can earn $100 a day for wrongful incarceration in Wyoming. What’s that, $4.75 an hour?
Your tax money for prosecutors, a little for defense attorneys, law enforcement, public safety, a blip for forensic research and Abrams tanks.
2015 proposed Obama budget for DOJ reaches $24.7 billion.
The First Amendment in action. Equal opportunity membership.
KKK recruiter in Florida (video).
“Dirty Harry” in China.
Swat leader states he took out five attackers in 15 seconds.
The single perp theory of crime lab malfeasance.
Something to speculate about the “bad apple” defense in action once again. “A chemist who admitted faking test results in criminal cases was the “sole bad actor” in a scandal that forced the shutdown of a state drug lab in Boston, but the facility also was plagued by management failures, inadequate training and a lack of protocols, a report released Tuesday found.” The first says its all Annie’s fault.
The second says “not so fast.”
Research ?
“New” dental aging technique in Australia for illegals, etc. This is a typical example of a promotion type report that has nothing in it but the researchers glowing aspirations of success. The standard deviations with these technique average more than + or – 2 years.
News: various
MN: Crime lab links gun DNA to dead suspect’s other crimes.
South Africa: Oscar Pistorius trial started on Monday. Expect a tornado of opposing expert testimony in the headlines. Mostly on ballistics an “reconstructionists.”
Exonerated for rape after being convicted at 15, this man’s case legally closed. His life’s problems are not.
This guy didn’t see the latest “CSI” show. “While in custody Ortiz mutilated his fingers with a razor blade and burned his hands in a misguided attempt to ruin prints after they were already taken, sources said.”
Effects of prosecutorial misconduct.
Prisoner still in jail for escape gets separate claim for $ damages for exoneration rejected.
Remembering a wrongful conviction from Texas.
I am thrilled to share that the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee just scheduled a markup for Senator Rockefeller’s S. 2022, The Forensic Science and Standards Act of 2014, on Wednesday, March 5th. A markup is a hearing of the full Senate Commerce Committee in which Senators debate, amend, and rewrite a bill and have the opportunity to take a vote to send it to the full Senate body for consideration.
The speed at which this bill is moving forward is exhilarating, but it leaves us with little time to express our support to the Committee. It is critical that the Commerce Committee see that there is broad support for this bill. Please consider sending an email of suppor t to Ann Zulkosky in Senator Rockefeller’s office at ( Ann_Zulkosky@commerce.senate.gov ).
Please let Sarah Chu ( schu@innocenceproject.org ) know if you’ve decided to contact Senator Rockefeller’s office in order to track the flow of submitted messages.
Here is my submission supporting S. 2020. It outlines the strengths and reasons for action.
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Police CRIME LABSs
“WHEN ALL THE DNA IS GONE. WE STILL CARRY ON”
This mantra translates to, “trust us we finally got it right.” The subject is the “gold standard” of forensics: DNA processing. From the Georgia state managed crime lab. In the South. The defendant is Carlton Gary, dubbed the “Stocking Strangler.” He is at a hearing arguing for a new trial on one of seven murders. He was convicted years ago. Try 1986. He missed execution in 2009 because of this appeal. My last blog was about the unsure bitemark expert involved in this same hearing.
“Houston, I mean Decatur, ‘we have a problem’.”
Excuses are emanating from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) crime lab (from supervisors and others) on blood evidence goofs that are very disappointing. Here is a partial litany of them. This Georgia state system of crime labs is ASCLD certified. There are 194 state lab under the ASCLD wing as of 2014.
1. There is contamination from crime lab misdeeds involving one of the murders. This is in the form of a control DNA sample being confused as Gary’s actual profile.
2. This was discovered when an analyst took an accurate profile of Gary and checked it to a GBI profile previously submitted to their own DNA archive some years ago. She got a surprise. The archived sample wasn’t Gary’s. She crossed checked this unknown profile IN the database TO the database and found hits from a second murder and another unassociated case. Many states do not allow/ or argue against in post-conviction ligitation. When permitted, the NY Innocence Project has identified the real perp in about 20% of their 311 exon cases: in a total coincidence, Mark Godsey blogged this same subject on Wednesday.
The total contaminated cases are 3.
3. All this testing extinguished all the available DNA samples from the murders.
Now here’s another rub and purely a lawyer’s strategy to bolster what seems like a fatally flawed scenario.
The prosecutor resorted to a “fluctuating blood type secretor” (those in the human population who secrete their blood type markers in blood, saliva and sweat) opinion from the original trial. This is some type of “fall back” position if the judge takes the “tainting defense’ to heart. A pros serologist named Wegel says, as quoted in this article:
“Wegel acknowledged Wednesday that Gary is a secretor, but said he believes secretions fluctuate, so Gary may not have secreted much of the marker at crime scenes. Under that premise, Gary could not be excluded as the strangler, Wegel said.”
This is biological tool that predated DNA that isn’t used much anymore for obvious reasons. 30% of the population could have been suspects as well. There is no data I can find (I’m not a biologist) about “fluctuating secretion rates” in the literature. Though I have heard about “fluctuating hormones.” Seems meaningless to me despite this retired serologist’s “belief” and “may haves” that his “cannot exclude” has identification value. It is obviously NOT an identificaton. Similar overstatements of forensic findings are seen throughout criminal forensic cases (try bitemarks and such) and are a current subject for the NCFS and Congressional investigators.
Here is the full article. I am hoping more on this case next week.
Now onto more forensic news ============================================================
1. Dog Scent lineups go to the pound.
2. Just like “Bones”? Anthropologist contradicts medical examiner’s testimony on women’s death.
3. Battling forensic experts. Too bad courts unable to tell the good from the bad. Or really care. None have taken a science course in their lives. The blood evidence in this case was botched from the start. The biologist from another “leading provider of forensic services” has a novel way of combining microscopic blood trace to make a reliable profile. According to him, anyway.
4. One more shot at it. I can’t get this one at all. The Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial does NOT include forensic “science.” Legal technicalities and culture trump everything. Here’s another very myopic ruling not limited to MS. (from CA.)
5. Virginia state crime lab expansion starts.
6. Rapid (90 minute) DNA analysis (just the profiling) AT the crime lab. Not “in the field.”
7. CT: More victims of violent crime complain about years long delays at police crime lab. This time it’s a death case. Maybe marijuana cases come first? They call this “forensic Purgatory.”
8. OR: Last second prosecution reveal of crime lab report irks (and that’s all: i.e. its “harmless error” not prosecutorial misconduct) a judge. Later on, expect a blood spatter wizard to talk about “comparing” bleach stains. I wonder where this is compiled in the IAI compendium research.
9. Supreme Court denied cert (review) two cases involving more legal semantics: namely, are forensic reports considered “testimony.” Similar cases yet to be considered for cert.
10. A very good read on the questionable to incompetent statistics prevalence in forensic science. Implications for the NCFS to review. From the Innocence Project blog. Here’s an example from the bitemark “research” world I recently blogged on the very same subject.
11. CRIMINAL LAW: Opinion on the bilateral Congressional negotiations on federal minimum sentencing reform. The article describes the problems with it since 1986
This is echoed by a local Chicago NAACP chapter. Read the statistics.
12. From the UK. Their legal defense attorneys are going indigent themselves from no funding.
13. Prosecutorial misconduct assertions (from the defense Bar) against a DA flies the fur.
Here’s more on the sketchy progress towards the normalization of forensics into a “science.” The Good with the Bad. The “unsure” bitemark dentist is at the end.
CRIME LABs
OHIO: A rocky road during murder trial for an ex-toxicology examiner for past transgressions concerning lab protocols.
DELAWARE: Medical Examiner has some theft problems in their drug lab that “needs to be straightened out.”
SOUTH AFRICA: Johannesberg police labs (N=3) need a serious makeover. “Staff are forced to work amid leaking sewage, fire hazards and overcrowding, while the backlog of tens of thousands of blood alcohol samples continues to grow.” The Joberg DA just issued this response.
CALIFORNIA: Alameda county outsourcing DNA rape kits to commercial Virginia crime considered “a leading provider of forensic DNA services.” This is a joint project with county LEOs, DA and local criminal justice orgs. Good stats about the staggering number of untested rape kits leaving sex criminals at large throughout the US.
WEST VIRGINIA: This state has a huge FBI crime fighting unit for the federal jurisdiction but its local crime labs are swamped and the taxpayers and victims are complaining.
FORENSIC RESEARCH
INNOVATION?: Developer ( another “leading provider of forensic services”) talks about shifting DNA extraction and profiling to “the field” without needing crime lab facilities. THis is definitely a trending topic in DNA capture and processing. See item 2 in this release. Now THAT’S going to raise some questions about “chain of custody.” Especially if the cops have suspect(s) at the scene for contemporaneous collection or in custody during these “mobile” applications. Shades of the Orenthal James Simpson defense.
Radioisotope analysis as a means to date an locate origin of skeletal remains. $$
INTIMIDATION OF MEDICAL EXPERTS
This law suit indicates that medical experts whose opinions are unpopular and undermine the status quo within their professions have legal protections against harassment.
BITEMARKS REDUX
FLORIDA: Innocence Project “Plain Error” review of “too unreliable” forensic odontology.” This suggests the writer would accept “occasionally unreliable.” But, not to waver, this piece parallels (and restates) the landslide of bad cases and publicity that is dogging the “elite” dentists of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Their denials and obfuscation of their unscientifically derived methods ran rampant at the latest AAFS meeting.
GEORGIA: Bitemark expert unsure about his own level of certainty. Doubts himself at a hearing and the Judge then takes over and examines the evidence himself. Now that sounds familiar. This strange brew of a judicial hands on forensic eval, shoe size and a gap between two teeth lead to what? Total confusion, as far as I’m concerned. Defense dentist and AAFS/ABFO follower, Tom David, seems conflicted about his own reliability. This article summarizes his testimony:
“Thomas says he cannot absolutely exclude him, but probably can.”
How’s that for scientific rigor?
MONDAY FEB 24, 2014
CRIME LABs: New DNA TECH vs “outdated” DNA methods
The history of DNA technology, its standards and population statistics use in criminal courts goes back to the time (and earlier) of this original trial. This should be interesting to say the least. According to this appellate litigation strategy, early DNA claims of specificity (using RFLP, I assume) may vary when compared to PCR and STR profiling in use today. Any variance could be ruled not material by the judge (a true “non-science” kinda guy) and fail to overturn the conviction (i.e. this variance “would not have changed the outcome of the trial). The article, however, does not describe the DNA method being scrutinized but “retesting the test” theory seems thin, absent the scenario where the crime lab itself flubbed up.
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THE CASE WITH LEGAL ARGUMENT FROM BOTH PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE COUNSEL.
A 15 year old conviction with DNA and other evidence is up for new biological review on appeal. The defense wants current methods to retest old testing. The prosecution presents an expectation of it having no effect. Here are some quotes:
“The evidence of Mr. Rasmussen’s guilt was overwhelming, and I think further DNA evidence will confirm the truth of his guilt,” Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said this month.”
I’ve heard that one a few times and it is proper to say. It’s when DAs contest post-conviction DNA testing in cases where pseudo-science was presented to convict that gets me riled up. As in bitemark cases I have consulted named: Brewer, Brooks, Stinson, Starks, Krone, Hill, Young. Prade and Richardson.
Here’s the defense side of our latest story.
“Mr. Rasmussen maintains he is innocent and seeks modern DNA testing that was unavailable at the time of his trial,” wrote lawyer Anna Tolin of the Innocence Project Northwest, which has taken Rasmussen’s case. Click this link for the article. “Requested testing has the potential to scientifically establish his innocence and conclusively identify the true perpetrator of this crime.”
Fridays’ FORENSIC FOCUS LINKS @csidds | Feb 21| Bitemarks on death row, crime lab backlogs a threat to public safety, breaking stats on hate crimes,
What’s trending today. The biggest problem with forensic science is that’s there is almost NO information about its research. What you see below is what there is currently available. Forensic literature and journals like the Journal of Forensic Sciences seem to have little impact value.
Crime Labs
There is a common scenario in police managed labs across the country. The ridiculous backlogs in biological testing of evidence. Despite these labs employing the hangers-on forensic disciplines of trace evidence, bitemark identifiers, shoeprints, and bullet matching, the introduction of robust DNA methods has police biologists overwhelmed.
More on the same backlog issue. New case scenarios. Sex crime evidence took crime lab one year to process. Then something else happened while the evidence languished. He attacked another victim and that led back to the first crime.
Same story, different spin. Now its “cutting edge” crime fighting. Really?
Bitemark Misidentifications from Death Row
The life and legacy of Greg Wilhoit who was on OK death row from the combination of bogus bitemark opinions and incompetent defense counsel. Thanks to Mark Godsey and author John Grisham for telling his story in The Innocent Man.
Crime Scene reconstructionist at trial. Here is his metaphor for what he does. Bovine identification. “You may have pieces of a cow, but you don’t have the whole cow, but you know it’s a cow,” he said. He has testified in hundreds of cases.
Hate Crimes / Civil Rights
The targets have changed in the US. Incredible statistics of anti-Hispanic hate crimes determined as increasing to epidemic proportions in the US. 2011 had 0.6 per 1,000: 2012 zoomed to 2.0 per 1000.
Link to The Latin Post on the subject. Much more emotional.
Criminal Law
Defense attorney, in pursuing a vigorous defense for his client, is having sleepless nights. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/pd_says_he_fears_arrest_before_triple_murder_case_concludes
Ballistics
South Africa: The Oscar Pistorius prosecution expert sides with the defense.
Cold Cases
Man’s disappearance 5 years ago, now linked to son by some unreported “forensic break.”
FORENSIC FOCUS @CSIDDS LINKS | Feb 19 |
COLD CASE:
Oregon suspect linked to AZ cold case as crime scene fingerprints “resubmitted” to the Federally managed archive. I wonder what happened to the first submission? The cold case is 40 years old but the story implies data got ignored or dropped for some reason.
This is a systemic problem with agencies “sharing” investigation data. http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/2d541f7dca104ccfb42d99d9ba962421/AZ–Cold-Case-Arrest/#.UwOquPldXW8
DIGITAL FORENSICS:
Third tier college opens a curriculum on computer (aka: “digital” forensics). This aspect of forensics is newly and very loosely defined regardless of the various “look-sees” by the NIJ guideline committees (called SWGs). Now the NCFS may be taking a look too. Maybe they will be called DSWG. (digital science working groups. Or?
http://www.macon.com/2014/02/18/2945645/middle-georgia-state-college-opens.html
FORENSIC TESTIMONY:
A prosecutor brings in DNA evidence from a cap found at the crime scene. Prosecution analyst says it was worn by the murder defendant. The defense counsel has to bring up the fact that four other unknown DNA profiles were also on the cap. He counters that there is no proof that his client was last the wear it. This implies there are four other possible suspects still out there. The jury will probably hear from the DA on re-direct that “you still cannot eliminate the defendant from committing this heinous crime.” Or something like that.
http://www.pnj.com/article/20140218/NEWS01/140218013/Forensic-evidence-crucial-murder-trial-
CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
I bet this prosecutor charges every single case of pot possession. His weakness seems to be sex crimes that are in the “non-stranger” category.
FORENSICS:
Anthros’ review on skeletal injuries on infants and small children. One problem is that kids heal fast and radiographs may not reveal their presence.
http://www.livescience.com/43480-bones-reveal-child-abuse.html
1. Crime Lab’s testing of the demon marijuana puts their CSI’s late for the party. Many states’ government funded labs are swamped with low priority, but a source of steady to high income (for law enforcement), pot that clogs other evidence (directly related to DUI prosecutions and etc.) processing leading to more overhead costs and personnel. http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/24597213/article-Editorial–The-backlog-of-justice–%C2%A0Budget-cutting-of-vital-departments-has-created-an-Alabama-nightmare?instance=home_opinion
2. Databases for Missing Persons to expand in the US. From the FBI. Now, this is great. The problem will be compliance and proper collection and quality assurance, from all 6000 LEOs (law enforcement orgs) in the US. Talk about a REAL challenge! Unfortunately cross cooperation at the agency level is sketchy. All from personal experience assisting in missing person cases.
3. Legal and non-legal reasons for wrongful convictions. Journal article. Takes $$ to see. Mentions race and availability to DNA testing as being conjoined factors!
http://cjp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/02/13/0887403414521461.abstract
FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends 