March 2011 - The Truth About Forensic Science

Can someone honestly answer why there is still Breath testing for EtOH in America?

On March 31, 2011, in Breath Testing, Equipment, by Justin J. McShane

Can someone honestly answer why there is still Breath testing for EtOH in America? Disclosure: As I have posted before, when people speak of Evidentiary Breath Testing (EBT) as a means of measuring Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), I shut off. My personal opinion is that: 1. The Paradigm Shift as Dr. Michael Hlastala writes is […]

Why do instruments need to be calibrated?

On March 29, 2011, in Equipment, General Information, Laboratory Procedure, Metrology, by Justin J. McShane

Calibration (and bias) schema is a procedure that imperfectly transforms a response into a useful measure. Some crime laboratories have no method or manner as to how, why or when they should calibrate their instruments. Other laboratories have truly arbitrary intervals that they calibrate their instruments, but then they declare that this arbitrary interval is […]

The Week 39 Forensic Science Geek of the Week Challenge

On March 27, 2011, in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week, by Justin J. McShane

Our good friend, Ron Moore, Esquire writes us “I actually had a client researching lawyers who looked at the Truth About Forensic Science geek of the week posts and liked my answers. It made a difference in who he decided to hire. Thanks!” So, there is a lot of value in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek […]

A rose by any other name??? More on Metrology and its nomenclature

On March 24, 2011, in Metrology, Standards, by Justin J. McShane

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet… is a quotation by William Shakespeare from his play Romeo and Juliet meant to say that the names of things do not matter, only what things are. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the line is said by Juliet in reference to Romeo’s house, Montague […]

False Conclusions and False Convictions: Attempts of Elucidating Pharmacodynamic Effect from an Analytical Chemistry Result-How Solely an Analytical Chemistry Result in a DUID Prosecution Cannot Scientifically Support a Conclusion of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs

On March 22, 2011, in Chemistry, Contextual Bias, Identification, In The Courtroom, by Justin J. McShane

False Conclusions and False Convictions: Attempts of Elucidating Pharmacodynamic Effect from an Analytical Chemistry Result-How Solely an Analytical Chemistry Result in a DUID Prosecution Cannot Scientifically Support a Conclusion of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs To download this post as a finished pdf article please click on the below: False Conclusions and False Convictions- […]

Week 38 Forensic Science Geek of the Week announced!

On March 20, 2011, in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week, by Justin J. McShane

The Forensic Science Geek of the Week The week 38 “www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week” honors goes to: PAM KING, ESQUIRE Pam King has been a lawyer with the Minnesota State Public Defender Trial Team since 2007. In that role, she is an active participant in the DNA Institute, a program designed to […]

The Week 38 Forensic Science Geek of the Week Challenge

On March 20, 2011, in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week, by Justin J. McShane

NFPA Releases NFPA 921:2011 and Rejects Negative Corpus

On March 17, 2011, in Arson, by Justin J. McShane

There is a lot that one can read at this blog about what is wrong with forensic science, but there are also great efforts to reform and make forensic science better and scientific. As I stated a long time ago when I started this blog, I was going to be critical of those disciplines and […]

Retesting Blood Alcohol Results

On March 15, 2011, in Enzymatic Testing, GC-FID & GC/MS, Laboratory Procedure, by Justin J. McShane

Sometimes, one of the scariest tests in the forensic science world are the more “routine” ones, such as Blood Alcohol analysis (meaning EtOH). There are such high demands in terms of throughput and such little real training in analytical chemistry in performing the assay given to the analysts that the potential for error is rather […]

The Week 37 Forensic Science Geek of the Week Challenge

On March 13, 2011, in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week, by Justin J. McShane

Week 36 Forensic Science Geek of the Week announced!

On March 12, 2011, in www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week, by Justin J. McShane

The Forensic Science Geek of the Week The week 36 “www.TheTruthAboutForensicScience.com Forensic Science Geek of the Week” honors goes to: RON MOORE Ron Moore, Esquire-Forensic Science Geek of the Week As frequent viewers of this blog site will know, Ron Moore is a frequent winner of this weekly competition. He is a unique lawyer in […]

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