If you don’t yet believe that individual liberties are being continually eroded, wait till you hear this one. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (otherwise known as the Future Supreme Court Justices of America), in its infinite wisdom, recently upheld an FCC regulation that requires providers of Voice Over IP […]

An interesting new case out of Pennsylvania portends some real conflict ahead. When a Pennsylvania man was tried for murder, prosecutors created a Computer-Generated Animation (CGA) movie depicting their version of the murder. The short film was generated with software commonly used by animators and was based on actual forensic evidence offered at the trial. […]

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 […]

I’ve written here about defendants using technology to convict themselves, but this one takes the prize. Justin Barber is on trial in Florida for murdering his wife. He claims that a mugger accosted him and his wife as they walked along a beach, shooting them both. Unfortunately for Mr. Barber, forensic computer experts found evidence […]

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 […]

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 […]