What a bizzaro world we live in! Heaven forbid, the State Crime Lab actually has to prove that the green leafy substance is in fact the illegal substance. Wow! What a novel concept. This is what was actually said OUTLOUD by the head of their crime lab: “We have to not just validate instruments, but […]
Mary McMurray on BrAC testing
There is a BrAC expert that I personally have a great amount of respect for. Her name is Mary McMurray. She took a post from “IFuckingLovScience” Facebook page and repurposed it for BrAC testing. I personally think it is hilarious, not because of its content, but because it is true. The truth is funnier than […]
In chromatography, you see what they want you to see: Get the Electronic Data Files
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 […]
Pennsylvania State Police Agree to Halt Evidential Breath Testing in PA
Breaking News: According to the Legal Intelligencer article “Breath-Test Ruling Could Affect Thousands of DUI Cases,” in reaction to our firm’s successful litigation of Commonwealth v. Jason Schildt, and the Linear Dynamic Range Challenge, the Pennsylvania State Police have agreed to halt all evidentiary breath testing in Pennsylvania. According to reporter Zack Needles: In fact, the […]
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? […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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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