Forensic News
California: Arson Conviction Begins to Unravel (5/31/10)
After spending 13 years in prison for an arson crime he says he did not commit, George Souliotes is seeking a new trial. He was convicted of setting a fire that killed a woman and her two children while they slept. Now, fire investigators say they don’t believe the fire was intentionally set. Read more.National: Forensic Evidence Must Always Be Considered for Its Merits in Each Case (5/27/10)
In a study of public reactions to forensic DNA evidence compared to other kinds of evidence, scholars have found that the reputation of the “gold standard” forensic test may cause fact finders to overlook mistakes and misconduct that could have tainted the results or inflate the weak evidence that might accompany it. Read more.Washington, D.C.: Fabric Imprint Identification Challenged in Court (5/27/10)
The defense lawyer in a Washington, D.C., murder case challenged the admissibility of a fiber comparison expert’s testimony. The expert is a key government witness who will testify to fabric imprint identification. Citing the National Academy of Sciences report on forensic science, the defense attorney challenged the soundness of this technique because it lacked a standard protocol. The Judge in the case delayed her decision on the admission of this evidence to read the NAS report first. Read more. Read more.Maryland: Wrongfully Convicted Baltimore Man Finally Freed (5/25/10)
Tyrone Jones served 12 years in prison for a conviction on conspiring to commit murder. In addition to flawed eyewitness testimony and undisclosed exculpatory evidence, Jones’ conviction was also based on flawed testimony about gunshot residue (GSR) evidence. GSR tests are not specific – many chemicals can test positive - and they are not a reliable indicator of who handled a firearm as GSR travels ubiquitously and contaminates its surroundings. Read more.South Carolina: Anderson County Use of Forensic Evidence (5/22/10)
Law enforcement officers use a variety of forensic disciplines to crack cold cases, South Carolina Sheriffs say. While DNA has its limitations, shoe-tread impressions, fingerprints and other chemical analyses of evidence tend to contribute the most information to solving homicides. Read more.International: Scientists Use DNA to Develop Genetic “Mug shot” Technique (5/20/10)
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen reconstructed the appearance of a 5,000 year old Eskimo by tracing his ancestral origins using DNA recovered from hair. Researchers are now trying to apply that technique to developing a DNA profile from biological evidence left at a crime scene to determine the appearance of a perpetrator. Because DNA does not account for environmental factors and this technology is still in development, there is a concern that the technique will be applied before it is proven reliable and an ethical concern that using genetic markers that code for ancestral origin will result in racial profiling. Read more.Nevada: Washoe Murder Trial Hampered by Crime Lab Backlog (5/19/10)
The trial of a man charged with the shooting death of his wife has been delayed due a backlog at the Washoe County Crime Lab (WCCL). The firearm has not been analyzed because one of the firearms examiners at the Washoe County Crime Lab resigned in December and the other must send her work to the Las Vegas lab to be verified. The judge has suggested that the prosecution find an independent examiner to analyze the evidence, but the prosecution has not been able to obtain custody of the gun from WCCL. Read more.California: Carbon-14 Used to Assess Age (5/19/10)
A Lawrence Livermore scientist and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute have developed a carbon-14 dating method on teeth to calculate the age of a person. Their recent research shows that this method can estimate a person’s age to within a year and the scientists hope to apply this technique to the age determination of unknown human remains. Read more.Arizona: Defense Lawyers Move to Exclude Shoeprint Evidence (5/11/10)
Defense lawyers in an Arizona murder case are arguing that shoeprint testimony should be excluded based on the National Academy of Sciences report on forensic science and Arizona’s new scientific evidence admissibility law. Prosecutors have said shoeprints at the crime scene could be from a pair of shoes bought by the defendant two years before the crime. Read more.New York: Shortcuts in Crime Lab Lead to Case Review (5/11/10)
NYPD officials recently announced that a lab analyst had not conducted required tests on controlled substances prior to reporting the results. The city's special narcotics prosecutor identified 15 pending cases and 31 with defendants awaiting sentencing in which this criminalist was the tester. Prosecutors from Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx are still trying to determine how many cases will be affected by this discovery. Read more.California: San Francisco Drug Lab to Close (5/6/10)
San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón has ordered that the city's drug laboratory be permanently closed. Independent laboratories will be used to process drug evidence from this point forward, allowing the police department to concentrate its resources on weapons testing and DNA testing. As part of a new strategy, police officers will conduct preliminary field tests, which can be used to support the filing of charges, thereby reducing the number of tests that need to be submitted to the external laboratory. Read more.Texas: Dog Scent Testimony Thrown Out in Fort Bend (5/6/2010)
A state district judge threw out dog scent evidence for its lack of reliability in a pending capital murder case of Rodolfo Dominguez, who is accused of the murder of a Fort Bend couple. The police tied items from the home to Dominguez using dog scent evidence conducted by controversial Fort Bend County Sheriff Deputy Keith Pikett. The judge found Pikett's scent lineup methods and techniques unreliable and inconsistent. Read more.Canada: Former Medical Examiner Encourages Switch from Coroner System (5/6/10)
John Butt, the former chief medical examiner for Alberta and Nova Scotia is advocating that British Columbia change its death investigation system from a coroner's office to one headed by a medical examiner. B.C.'s Coroners Act doesn't require the chief coroner to have a medical background, and the post has been held by members of law enforcement for nearly three decades. Althouigh the newly elected Chief Coroner is a physician, Butt hopes that the legislature will act in line with the recommendation made by the National Academy of Sciences in its recent report on the forensic science community to follow a medical examiner system. Read more.United Kingdom: Science Student Develops Breakthrough Drug Test (5/5/2010)
A Derby University college student developed a new method of forensic analysis that allows the detection of cocaine to a pictogram, or a million millionth of a gram. Her studies utilized a method called gas chromatography mass spectrometry and her samples were collected by swabbing telephone boxes across the city. Read more.Texas: Arson Convictions Scrutinized on "20/20" (5/4/10)
ABC News' "20/20" devoted an hourlong program on May 7 to arson investigations and cases in which arson experts believe that questionable arson determinations have resulted in wrongful convictions. Read more.National: American Statistical Association Supports Major Reforms of the Nation’s Forensic Science System (5/3/10)
The American Statistical Association (ASA) Board of Directors endorsed the recommendations of the 2009 National Academies’ report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward.In its statement, the ASA Board recognized the pivotal role of forensic science in our judicial system and cited the value of statistical methods and research to improve forensic methods. ASA believes the NAS Report identified many serious deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and broke new ground by offering a comprehensive review of the forensic science system with the authority of the National Academies. The organization also supports the creation of an independent, science-focused institute to oversee forensic science as described by the NAS Report and believes it is especially critical that the new agency use appropriate statistical practices to raise the level of forensic science in the United States. Read more.