Our regular guest blogger here, Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, JD, PhD was featured for his courageous work in exposing invalid science with the FBI. He is a true American hero! Way to go Dr. Whtiehurst! Dr. Whitehurst will be presenting the Donald Gates case and his efforts at the American Chemical Society national meeting and the […]
Another failure of Quality Assurance in a Crime Laboratory that is framed as a bad analyst acting alone
You know the story. The headline screams that a lone wolf analyst made mistakes in the laboratory all by him or herself but the prosecution and the laboratory itself assures the public there is nothing to worry about and all is well. Here we go again. History repeats itself in this article: Texas Crime Lab […]
In the category of things that upset me and should upset you, I give you the SBI Lab
Well, I was going to use this blog post to write about the ethics of a crime laboratory, but where do you begin with a story like this. I suggest that if this article, if true, doesn’t give you multiple points of pause, then there is something wrong with you. Kudos to the District Attorneys […]
How many wrongful convcitions are out there?
The cost of phony forensic science is extreme. Finally the mainstream press is starting to notice the chance of false conviction is higher than traditionally thought… Largest compilation of exonerations ever finds over 2,000 falsely convicted over past 23 years WASHINGTON — More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been […]
Why can’t the bad apples wear name tags? Sorting out good from bad in forensics
As we have written on this blog many times, it is incumbent upon everyone (judges, prosecutors, jurors, defendants, and defense counsel) involved in the criminal justice system to be skeptical of the forensic science reports produced in court. In fact, it is essential. The few bad apples don’t wear name tags around their necks that […]
Why Don’t we Six Sigma Forensic Science? It’s all about method validation, traceability, and quality assurance
The goal of any form of identification or quantitation is to produce a specific and true expression that is valid. In the forensic world how we scientifically arrive at a reported result should not be an act of mysterious busywork, but rather a result of planned, purposeful meaningful action that is validated and truly scientific. […]
Oooooh I’m telling your mama! What do you do when an analyst or a crime laboratory is fraudulent or grossly negligent in what they do?
What do you do when an analyst or a crime laboratory is fraudulent or grossly negligent in what they do? As there is no meaningful forensic oversight in the United States today, we truly operate in a land not unlike the American Wild Wild West. As the great American West was being tamed, it was […]
More on Enzymatic Assay for Determination of BAC in a forensic context
Enzymatic Immunoassay (EIA) is a quick and indirect means of determining ethanol content. It’s original development was strictly for the purposes of a very quick determination of whether or not there was the possibility that there was ethanol in a patient. It was designed for the clinical emergency environment where we need a very quick […]
The importance of t0 in forensic chromatography
If you are bored and want to have a little fun, call up your local crime laboratory, ask for someone who preforms their chromatography (it doesn’t matter if it is liquid chromatography or gas chromatography). When you get that person ask them a simple question: What’s the t0 (pronounced “t subzero”) for your method that […]
Why per se Driving Under the Influence of Drug Based Prosecution is Not Scientific and How Probation Violations for Marijuana Use May Be Wrong
I cannot imagine that a single rational and sane person cares for drug impaired drivers to be on the road among us driving what amounts to a guided missile weighing about 3,000 to 5,500 pounds or more. As has been shown time and again, a drug intoxicated driver can be a weapon of mass destruction. […]
Score one for Science: The DRE program is found to be unreliable and not admissible
As I have blogged before DUID cases should be very difficult to prosecute due to the pharmacological differences among us. In this six part post we started to explore all of this: Part 1. Introduction Part 2. Pharmacokinetics Part 3. Pharmacodynamics Part 4. Bioavailabilty Part 5. “Free versus Bound Drug“ Part 6. Elucidating Pharmacodynamic Effect […]
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