Remember this scene from Seinfeld? I had a brush of this of similar type today. Science versus science fiction… The Bizarro World (also known as Htrae) is a fictional planet in the DC comics universe. Introduced in the early 1960s, Htrae is a cube-shaped planet, home to Bizarro and his companions, all of whom were […]
A “drug detection dog” is certainly not specific
Who doesn’t love dogs? They are man’s best friend after all. But can we really trust “drug detection” dogs and their handlers? We have blogged about these dogs here before: What can David Letterman’s Stupid Animal Tricks Teach us About Forensic Science? Doggie sniffs are a poor substitute for meaningful analytical chemistry Here is a […]
Thanksgiving…. But still injustice happens
Here is a very good NPR presentation on the state of forensic science. It is worth the read: Scandals Call Into Question Crime Labs’ Oversight by MARIE CUSICK Three years ago, a report from the National Academy of Sciences exposed serious problems in the nation’s forensic science community. It found not only a lack of peer-reviewed science in […]
Doughnuts and Blood Testing – How the government’s own data often proves that they contaminate blood samples and look the other way
The Colorado Springs Independent recently published an article about laboratory concerns within the Colorado State crime laboratory system. The article written by Chet Hardin was called “Blood and circus: Why many DUI lawyers don’t trust the state’s drug lab.” One of the issues discussed was the problem of ethanol being detected in blanks. The governments position of […]
National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 paints a grim picture of jurors
Many a time I have scratched my head baffled at juries, prosecutors, and even judges who just seemingly hate science. I am not talking about competing legitimate theories rooted in science, but rather intentional ignorance or flat-out denial in favor of the unsupported or pseudo-scientific. The National Science Foundation just released its findings about scientific […]
Whose data is it? The Crime Laboratory or the People
One of the continuing sources of frustration to many criminal defense attorneys is that generally what we get in discovery is simply garbage conclusory reports of little value. What criminal defense attorneys look to do is to verify and validate these conclusions set to this conclusory report. In essence, we simply seek to do science. […]
Garbage conclusory reports
One of the more frustrating things that criminal defense attorneys run into are garbage conclusory reports. One of the common misperceptions is that the lawyer for the accused gets information from the crime laboratory upon demand. This is not so. What we usually get can best be characterized as garbage conclusory reports. These garbage conclusory […]
The Pharmacology of Ethanol: When the Number Doesn’t Match the Science
The pharmacology of ethanol has been well-studied for a great many years. Lost to antiquity is precisely where and when the pharmacodynamics of ethanol was first studied. However, it is clear that ethanol’s effects on the human being was well known dating back to perhaps neolithic times perhaps as long ago as 9,000 years ago. […]
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