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In The News

2016-12-06 | Bite mark evidence challenged in Ross case
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has become the latest organization to identify bite mark evidence as profoundly unreliable, joining the National Academy of Sciences, the Texas Forensic Science Commission and other academic researchers and scientists, Delger said.

2016-12-04 | State crime lab woes: Increased demand, lack of personnel and equipment negatively impacting workload
But according to a West Virginia State Police 2015 report, it’s a matter of increased demand and a lack of personnel and equipment to keep up with the workload. All evidence collected from criminal investigations from every county and jurisdiction in the state is sent to the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory in Charleston. That 2015 report pointed to a “tremendous backlog of approximately 2,400 drug cases” in the lab, which was not fully staffed. That figure stood at more than 2,900 in fall of this year, according to a recent release.

2016-12-04 | NC Man Who Served 25 Years for Rape Based on Hair Evidence Pardoned
Timothy Bridges was convicted of raping an elderly woman in 1991, based on two hairs found at the scene of the crime, and despite a bloody handprint on the wall that didn’t match him. He served 25 years in prison, before his conviction was vacated and he was released on bond last autumn. Now he has been granted a full pardon by the North Carolina governor – and has become the latest prisoner completely cleared of his supposed crimes based on faulty hair analysis.

2016-12-01 | Experts Argue it's Time to Stop Using Bite Marks in Forensics
Studies of wrongful convictions based on DNA exoneration's have found the forensic sciences to be second only to eyewitness errors as a source of false or misleading evidence contributing to erroneous convictions. Error rates by forensic dentists are perhaps the highest of any forensic identification specialty still practiced.

2016-11-28 | Experts: DNA technique not used in NY could help in Karina Vetrano case
In the nearly four months since 30-year-old Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano was strangled in Spring Creek Park, teams of NYPD detectives have worked the case with no suspects. The best lead so far has been DNA left on Vetrano’s body that hasn’t matched any profiles in state or national databases of convicted criminals, police said.

2016-11-28 | After lab closure, daunting questions on DNA-based convictions remain
The shuttering of the Austin Police Department’s forensics lab after an audit found unscientific protocols and contamination of evidence has delayed pending cases and led to a debate about how the lab should be operated. Now, the Travis County district attorney’s office is faced with another chunk of the problem: Figuring out how many cases were resolved using possibly bad DNA evidence.

2016-11-28 | Debate rages over quality of science in crime labs
In 1992, a jury convicted the Air Force veteran, who had no previous criminal record, in a three-day trial and sentenced him to die. He spent more than a decade in prison, including three years on death row, until DNA testing proved his innocence and pointed to the real killer in 2002. “They were going to kill me using this junk bite-mark science,” said Krone, 59, who now lives in Tennessee. “The system is set up so that mistakes will be made. That’s why it’s beyond important for scientists to make sure what they are saying about evidence is true and can be backed up with scientific proof, not guess work. You guess wrong and people can die or lose chunks of their life behind bars.”

2016-11-23 | Nearly 9 In 10 Crime Labs Were Accredited In 2014, Up From 2002
At the end of 2014, 88 percent of the nation's 409 publicly funded forensic crime laboratories were accredited by a professional forensic science organization, which was up from 82 percent at yearend 2009 and 70 percent at yearend 2002, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, International, was the most common type of accreditation in 2014.

2016-11-21 | 20K DWI cases up in the air after officer accused of records tampering. What's next?
Officials from the state Division of Criminal Justice, which brought the charges against Dennis, said in correspondence obtained through a public records request that the temperature check — while legally required under a decision known as State v. Chun — is not scientifically necessary.

2016-11-21 | In a National First, HFSC Begins Blind Testing in DNA, Latent Prints
The blind testing program goes beyond the demands of accreditation, which require analysts to undergo periodic proficiency testing. In every crime lab in the nation, however, analysts know when they are taking a proficiency test. Under HFSC’s blind testing program analysts in five sections do not know whether they are performing real casework or simply taking a test. The test materials are introduced into the workflow and arrive at the laboratory in the same manner as all other evidence and casework.