In chromatography, you see what they want you to see: Get the Electronic Data Files By: Justin J. McShane, JD, F-AIC and Josh D. Lee, JD What evil lies in the heart of man? The Shadow knows… What evil may lie in the heart of chromatographers? The Electronic Data Files (EDF) know… In courtrooms all […]
Open Letter to the Department of Health about the Linear Dynamic Range Challenge
I sent the following letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Health right after Judge Lawrence F. Clark, Jr.’s ruling in the Linear Dynamic Range Challenge. So far, there has been no response, but it has also only been a couple of days. Let’s hope that they truly care about justice and science and the safety […]
The Demonstrated Linear Dynamic Range Challenge in PA DUI Breath Tests
“You gotta prove it before you can use it, and then prove it again.” Would you use a pacemaker in a loved one if it wasn’t proven to work correctly before you used it? Would you use a baby car seat with your child if it wasn’t proven to work correctly before you used it? […]
A New Year’s Resolution for us all: Better forensic science
I would love it if our collective societal New Year’s Resolution would be for us to demand more science in forensic science. What a wonderful world it would be. I have reprinted in its entirety a wonderful article about the state of forensic science today (Hat tip to Michael Romano for noticing the article and […]
Loophole for Justice: Does a Combination of Prosecutorial Ignorance and Outsourcing of Forensic Services Matter?
One of the alarming trends I am seeing locally and even nationally is the employing of third party vendor laboratories to do forensic analysis. While I think it is a good idea to remove the forensic analysis from law enforcement per the NAS report recommendations, I fear that it is also done, in part, for […]
The Shame that is Dallas County Crime Lab-the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, or SWIFS
It is great to live in a time of great awakening. It is marvelous to watch even the mainstream media do what it should have done decades ago: question. We must continue to question the sacred cow of forensic science. In doing so, it will only promote justice. Here is a great article on the […]
Integration and the need for electronic data files
Boss Tweed (pictured below) was a notorious political crime boss in New York. He had a quote that was attributed to him: “Remember the first rule of politics. The ballots don’t make the results, the counters make the results. The counters – keep counting.” This is also true in chromatography. We have written in this […]
Only in the bizarro “science” world of forensic science: I only consider the data the DA tells me to
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Inappropriate & Unethical Relationship Revealed between Drug Prosecutor & Chemist Annie Dookhan
The investigation into the Massachusetts Crime Lab scandal involving Annie Dookhan has revealed that there was an inappropriate and unethical relationship between her and a prosecutor in the district attorneys office. It appears that for the last two to three years, prosecutor George Papachristos had direct personal communication with Dookhan who was the chemist on […]
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