Tag Archives: crime labs

Forensics disaster in the UK. Looking at £s wasted and evidence lost

Take a close look at this one. Government “savings” turned into a mayhem of chaos since the 2012 closure of the FSS. Dont talk to police or politicians abt forensics. http://www.labnews.co.uk/article/2029976/forensics-in-crisis

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Looking at a Revolution? Getting Forensics Out of Law Enforcement

Many reform ideas in this series of Q&A to forensic and legal experts by the WaPo’s Radley Balko. All are logical and very practical. Prosecutors must be gagging. Here is a quote: Chris Fabricant, the Innocence Project Easiest reform: Eliminate … Continue reading

Posted in AAFS, Bite Marks, Bitemarks, Forensic Science, Forensic Science Bias, forensic science reform | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

DNA Mixture Wrangling Over Private Company Secrecy Versus a Defendant’s Right for Discovery of #Forensic Methods

The scales of justice are wobbling back and forth on this one. Copyright and Intellectual Property interests seem to be winning and allowing District Attorneys to cloak their experts’ computer programs. One judge in San Diego, CA is running against … Continue reading

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“Probabilities of Identity” from #Forensic Fingerprints get thumbs down from AAAS

The AAAS,  (the American Association for the Advancement of Science) maybe the upcoming opposition to the now Trump-run DOJ forensic “commission.” They released a report that latent print examination producing testimonial certainties as to one person identity gets the gong. The … Continue reading

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A “discrepant” view on flawed forensics leading to later exonerations – bitemarks at al.

A mighty effort by someone connected to the National Institute of Justice to blend ‘forward thinking’ about science and better crime lab management improving the reliability of criminal convictions. The author uses a blend of data that minimizes how many … Continue reading

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Looking at your cellphone for spit, sweat, cosmetics, and DNA

Running labs test on personal items retrieved from crime scenes. None of these can indicate time of occurrence. Obviously will be used to influence confessions and plea deals. The only true biological “identifier” would be DNA. https://www.nij.gov/topics/forensics/evidence/trace/Pages/forensic-identification-using-individual-chemical-signatures.aspx   No high … Continue reading

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DNA taking law enforcement into all our lives – Is it unfettered invasion of privacy?

CODIS has More ID information than [once] believed – Scientists Find This open access research paper is explained in the following commentaries: Laboratory Equipment News Stanford Medicine  Stanford News   

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Leading Australian state DNA analyst seems to be in a bit of a pickle

This one article ( from a large collection) about a very senior Western Australia DNA prosecutorial lab DNA scientist raises a bunch of questions on his decades long case work. Here are some key comments: State’s leading DNA expert sacked. … Continue reading

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Genetic ‘Stop and Frisk’ not such of a magic bullet after all – Familial DNA issues

  It seems that most police sciences get validated (at least some do) AFTER the cops start using it. While DNA profiling is considered the ‘gold standard’ for identification (not DNA mixtures, however),  this run-up to its use as a … Continue reading

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Forensics Today – The rise of the ‘I don’t care’ response to forensic science reform

When forensic reform was trending The Obama-era Commission on Forensic Science just finished its proposals for better over sight on forensics by the Executive branch in the form of an Office on Forensic Science.  It’s been under development back to Obama’s … Continue reading

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