In a very close decision, the US Supreme Court took the unusual step of overruling the Court of Appeals and granting a deathrow inmate the opportunity to raise new claims of actual innocence through habeas corpus proceedings that the lower court ruled were precluded under existing legal doctrine. Prisoners in such cases are required to […]

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 […]

The pressure to close an unsolved murder case is great, and it’s even greater when police have a 26 year-old case and a suspect they *want* desperately to convict but are held back by a disappointing lack of evidence. That didn’t stop prosecutors in Toledo, Ohio from charging a 68 year old priest with the […]

I’ve talked about it here and seen it in action in my own practice. The “CSI Effect” is entrenching itself into mainstream public perceptions of the criminal process. With DNA exonerations becoming as newsworthy as tomorrow’s weather, and the utter saturation of crimeshow television, public expectations have set the technology bar high: if you don’t […]

Gregory Wallis was 29 years old when he was arrested and tried for a burglary and attempted sexual assault. He swore he didn’t do it, and after an inconclusive DNA test using old technology, a Texas jury convicted him and the judge gave him 50 years in prison. Now, 18 years later, with the benefit […]

It’s bad enough when a completely factually innocent man has to spend 10 years of his life in prison for something he had nothing to do with — that’s got to shock the conscience of most anyone. But these tragedies hurt on so many other dimensions. When Neil Miller was wrongfully convicted of a rape […]

You might remember my original post on this case, wherein police actually nabbed a suspect by illegally posing as a lawfirm and mailing him a solicitation to join in a class action lawsuit. When the unsuspecting target mailed back his envelope with his request to join in the suit, police retrieved DNA from the […]

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, […]