I’ve written previously about the decline of GSR (Gunshot Residue analysis) as a forensic mainstay here and here, as have other commentators. And now the FBI, operators of the biggest forensic lab in the world, have announced that they will no longer perform GSR analysis in their labs. I have no idea why people are […]

I just finished posting the note about the lawyer in Olympia that got slapped by his client during jury selection when someone brought to my attention news that a defendant in Boston tried to strangle his lawyer in trial. Is this catching or what?
Read about it here.
RP

I know this has nothing to do with technology in the courtroom, but I thought it was good for a laugh anyway. Defense lawyers are used to getting slapped around in court by judges, cops and prosecutors. But … by their clients? Larry Jefferson was still picking a jury for his client Justin Jacobson when […]

Hard to believe, but a few dozen law enforcement officials from five Florida counties packed a committee room as a show of opposition to a bill that would require them to record custodial interrogations. The bill (HB 681) would require interrogations to be recorded as a prerequisite to admissibility. Their reason? They claim it’s the […]

In apparent recognition of the CSI Effect, the American Judicature Society has finally convened a Commission on Forensic Science and Public Policy, co-chaired by former Attorney General Janet Reno, former FBI Director William Webster, and Carnegie Mellon University Statistician Stephen Feinberg. The Commission includes 38 high profile scientists, law professors, defense attorneys, prosecutors, cops […]

Justice Alito has been pro-prosecution most of his professional life, serving as a Federal Prosecutor in New Jersey before taking the bench. But in a move no doubt designed to balance his image in the public eye, his first Opinion assignment was to write for a unanimous Court reversing a South Carolina conviction in a […]

I wrote about this case earlier and called the evidence against Father Robinson “flimsy”. It was enough, however, for the jury to find him Guilty, so I stand rebuked. Still, when you consider that they found male DNA not only on the nun’s underwear, but under her fingernails (strongly indicating a struggle with her […]

An update on an earlier post about the sad case of Todd Cameron Willingham, executed by Texas in 2004 for a crime experts now say he did not commit. Four of the nation’s top arson investigators were asked to independently review the evidence used to convict Willingham of the alleged arson that resulted in the […]

I’ve been in jury trial these last few days but I’ve got some free time now. This morning my jury came back with their verdict. There were many issues in the case, but one point I drove home in cross examination and final argument was that, of the five police cars that pulled up to […]

Are Polygraphs junk science or underutilized forensic technology? They occupy the most unusual position in the hierarchy of forensic instruments, universally rejected in courts as not even meeting the Frye test of acceptability in the scientific community, yet enjoying huge mindshare within law enforcement and an astonishing growth rate within the federal government.
With the […]