Tag Archives: Anthropology
Big blowup in FLA about ‘secret’ STRmix DNA software program
Broward county is having some crime lab problems. Some damned whistleblower got to the damned journalists. A commercially (hence private) software program for mixed blood samples isn’t helping too much either. This Google search on ‘mixed DNA litigation’ brings up … Continue reading →
Forensics: Accusing a crime lab of planting evidence, innocent man executed in CA, +++more
News Miner: Eberhart: Fairbanks Four deserve compensation… Arkansas Online: Faulty science gains 2 Arkansas convicts new trials… Los Angeles Times (editorial): California has executed 13 men since reviving the death penalty. Was one of them innocent?… Detroit Free Press: Lawyer … Continue reading →
Forensics and Criminal Law Potpourri – Some good stuff about innocence, arson, exon $$
From the Center for Wrongful Convictions’ Friday blog. Boston Herald: Arson evidence under fire… The St. Louis American: Exoneree George Allen Jr. passes away, mother is raising funds for funeral… The Daily Progress: State treasurer seeks guidance in paying Beatrice 6 … Continue reading →
Parsing the error rates a judge found acceptable for a “ballistic similarity” = “identification”
The war of words about what is ‘reliable’ about forensic opinions is getting stretched and compressed depending on the source of comment. The fingerprint corp called the IAI had its’ president put a 3/4 page blast out about his ‘standing’ … Continue reading →
Messed up DNA testing fixed after 24 years in prison; Lazy ballistics
Wisconsin man exonerated and released from prison after 24 years after Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office found lab analyst made errors in original 1992 DNA analysis report (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) A new study shows that PredPol, a predictive policing software … Continue reading →
Sketchy police use of body cameras; LEO use of predictive crime software biased and useless
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 … Continue reading →
Serial rapists and underachieving government crime lab; cops as “super-experts”
“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 … Continue reading →
The underbelly of science vs police science arguments in the News
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 … Continue reading →
Data search into the success of criminal appeals: Results are………..
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 … Continue reading →
Desperate Wife Takes Husband’s Colon to Austria for poison testing
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 … Continue reading →