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Tag Archives: forensic examiner error
Forensics: USING STATISTICS LIKE A DRUNKARD USES A LAMP POST; FOR SUPPORT NOT ILLUMINATION
Awesome read: Forensic/Science Accuracy . This is a British Commonwealth legal review of forensic expertism. Many nuggets of prior cases and judge-like opines are presented. The article also appreciates the contribution of US law profs Risinger, Saks, and Thompson’s activities … Continue reading
“Making Forensics Unsafe” – Again its the FBI pattern matchers.
(Image credit: ProPublica) This has a familiar ring to it. More or less it is the “I can see it, even if you can’t” brand of accepted “scientific” testimony. This is the path of other forensic innovators who single-handedly advance … Continue reading
Forensics: More of the usual police rush to do their own DNA testing without Validating the “Black Box.”
Another short piece of “WTF” about law enforcement over-zealous main line adoption of their in-house “novel” methods. Precautions cast aside are: “Yet as recent coverage of the police rollout of these devices makes clear, the advent of Rapid DNA introduces … Continue reading
Forensics and Law: Lack of scientific concerns shows its ugly head in the US Supreme Court
Take a look at this short op-ed about how the highest US court handles junk police forensics. This time the subject is dog sniffing dogs as probable cause for the police to ransack your house. Lawyers need more Science 101 … Continue reading
Forensics: The timeline of battling junk forensics in the Texas courts – lessons learned – all from bitemarks
“Grits” runs us the story on the enormous effort undertaken in Texas to teach judges and prosecutors that bitemarks are the spawn of the alchemists and soothsayers among us. Grits for Breakfast legal blog The timeline of getting TX courts … Continue reading
Forensics: Another court bypasses recanted expert testimony and agrees with a DA being “confused” about what junk forensics means.
Lets say again, that almost any excuse can be used by some courts to deny that junk forensic testimony should be a threshold for a successful request for a new trial. https://www.propublica.org/article/judge-in-joe-bryan-case-rejects-defense-pleas-for-new-trial
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Tagged forensic examiner error, Forensic science, junk forensic science
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Forensics: 1985 trial using junk bitemark evidence not a problem to another appellate court
(Image: the concept of worms causing dental decay) Yet another confirmation that the “rule of law” used in courts of review supersedes unspeakable injustice of failed expert testimony used to convict. This story indicates the prosecutors philosophy of “once convicted, … Continue reading
Forensics: A good look at an expert’s advocacy. Admitted by some courts, but not all.
This story is about a MD who has a strange habit of giving opinion evidence in child abuse cases cloaked as sound science. Works for him. One court called him out on it. https://www.propublica.org/article/david-ayoub-an-anti-vaxxer-new-crusade
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Tagged expert opinion, forensic examiner error, Forensic science
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Forensics: Over a million forensic hair cases need to be reviewed in Virgina
This story reveals that the obstacles and reluctance to review convictions aided by junk sciences can be overcome. State by state. Too bad the bitemarker bunch (http://www.abfo.org ) refuse to make good their promises to do this in Texas. A … Continue reading
Forensics: As usual, lawyers influencing “rules” on decision-making truly are ignorant
Forensics, Justice, and the Case for Science-Based Decision Making The US Department of Justice ran this show. Simon Cole at the U of Irvine writes a clear expose’ (at the above link) on the details of a newly adopted series … Continue reading