I’ve written about some of the problems associated with GSR (Gunshot Residue) analysis, and how its theoretical foundation is being challenged by courts and commentators alike. It’s a hell of a story because GSR has been one of the fundamental, bread and butter disciplines in most state crime labs for some time.

It’s not surprising, then, that these state crime labs, among the most pitifully funded and poorly monitored “labs” in the nation, are turning their attention to sexier science that gets headlines and actually achieves results. In other words, DNA testing.

Utah state officials have reached the conclusion that GSR is no longer a priority in their crime labs and they’ve ceased all funding for it, focusing their attention instead on DNA. What’s fascinating about this particular decision is that while defense lawyers are requesting GSR analysis in some cases in order to help clear their clients, Stu Smith, the state’s Director of Crime Labs, is taking the position that GSR analysis isn’t all that helpful after all. I wonder if he would have testified to that in any of the prior cases in which people were convicted based on his lab’s offer of GSR “evidence”?

This is probably just a budgeting and funding story, but you can’t help wonder if some part of Utah’s decision was based on a realization that the “science” isn’t cutting it under the kind of scrutiny that DNA is bringing to light in a CSI-conscious world.

Read about the Salt Lake City decision here.

RP

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 11:34 am and is filed under News, Junk Science, DNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.