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In The News

2018-07-25 | NIST Builds Statistical Foundation for Next-Generation Forensic DNA Profiling
STR-based profiling was developed in the 1990s, when genetic sequencing was hugely expensive. Today, NGS makes sequencing cost-effective for biomedical research and other applications. NGS can also be used to create forensic DNA profiles that, unlike traditional STR profiles, include the actual genetic sequence inside the markers. That provides a lot more data.

2018-07-15 | State crime lab backlogs slow investigations
Childress argues that a quicker turnaround keeps the wheels of justice moving for everyone, which also shortens the time defendants spend in the city jail. That saves the city money, which helps offset the cost of running the lab, he said. That’s why Childress argues that focusing on the cost to open a lab is short sighted. The average turnaround time is 21 days for most evidence and up to 60 days for ballistics. Evidence can be processed more quickly when needed. As an example, Childress cited a 2013 fatal shooting that investigators were able to quickly solve because the lab rushed to process evidence.

2018-07-11 | CRIME LAB DIRECTOR SAYS TOO BUSY TO SEARCH FOR FORENSIC SCIENCE ERRORS
Houlihan met that question—pending at least since 2016, when the Weekly revealed the controversy—with palpable silence until February, by briefly emerging to deny wrongdoing. Hoping his word would be enough to sidestep an inquiry, he gave no meaningful explanation for his declaration. That misstep only drew additional scrutiny. So Houlihan decided he’d become tight-lipped again, unless commanded otherwise by court order. Providing irreconcilable inconsistencies in murder cases isn’t the typical bureaucratic snafu. It’s a crisis. Because the overwhelming majority of jurors nationwide have little understanding of forensic-science minutia heard in court, they rely on the credibility of the crime lab officials’ sworn analysis.

2018-07-11 | Innocence Project: DNA Frees Oklahoma Man Convicted of Rape
Smith said the victim identified Lott, but that there could be no DNA match because the attacker wore a condom and gloves. “We don’t believe (DNA) proves anything,” Smith said Tuesday. “On the small slim chance that we could be wrong, and that justice be served, we agreed to his compromise.” Smith said the agreement maintains Lott’s convictions and that he must register as a sex offender. He said it avoids putting the victim through the ordeal of a possible re-trial.

2018-06-25 | We’ve discovered a way to recover DNA from fingerprints without destroying them
Sweat can contain DNA so it’s possible to retrieve it from latent fingermarks, although the success of the technique very much depends on the quantity and quality of the DNA. As crime scenes are not sterile environments, it’s also possible for latent fingermarks to be contaminated with DNA from the same person or from different people. But to find latent fingermarks, investigators often need to brush a surface with powder that may contaminate or damage the DNA. Another way to detect fingermarks is to use light sources, such as ultraviolet light torches, but the process isn’t always reliable and it can also degrade DNA. There is a process for recovering DNA, which involves rubbing a swab over the fingermark or lifting it using special tape, something which can in turn make the fingermark unusable.

2018-06-22 | DNA Doe Project Names Another, Giving Major Piece in Infamous Ohio Mystery
The old man killed himself with a gun in his Eastlake, Ohio apartment in the scorching month of July 2002. Upon discovery, the body was so badly decomposed that detectives couldn’t pull fingerprints. The name, they were pretty sure, was Joseph Newton Chandler III. But when police attempted to notify next of kin, and to find a beneficiary of the $82,000 he had saved, they found an empty lot where a supposed sister lived. Further investigation of a Social Security number determined that "Chandler" was really an 8-year-old boy who had died in a car crash in Texas in 1945.

2018-06-15 | Forensics in crisis
The assumption that forensic science provides unequivocal answers for the criminal justice system was seriously undermined several years ago. Two US chemists who worked at Massachusetts state labs in the US separately admitted to, and were convicted of, faking drug evidence. Although they’ve both served their prison sentences, the story is not over. The severe misconduct of the now infamous scientists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak caused massive reverberations, leading to tens of thousands of overturned drug convictions. Since the scandals erupted, several other smaller scale forensic fraud cases have surfaced in the US, as well as in the UK and Canada.

2018-06-13 | Judge Halts 3D Model Evidence in FBI Agent's Oregon Shooting
U.S. District Judge Robert Jones wrote Monday that the representation of Astarita's position is based on aerial FBI video of such poor quality that it can't be shown to jurors at the trial scheduled to begin July 24. "The clear image of the model depicting defendant with his rifle shouldered and trained on Finicum's truck was not the product of a reliable methodology and involved excessive subjectivity," the judge wrote.

2018-06-11 | Former Forensic Science Director Alleges DNA Flubs in NY
Gestring was the head of OFS until March, when he was terminated following allegations of inappropriate behavior including sexual harassment, according to The New York Daily News and The Albany Times-Union. (Those allegations remain disputed.) Gestring claims in his letter that while the New York State Police Databank Laboratory does the analytical work and operates the physical aspects of the science, it is the role of OFS to ensure the accurate identification from the samples and offenders. The three hit notification failures were “catastrophic,” according to Gestring’s letter. The fourth incident, which was the alleged falsified certification document, was put together by a DNA hit coordinator, he claims—who was suspended and then retired shortly afterward.

2018-06-08 | FORESIGHT 2020 Automates Tracking of Best Practices, Blind Spots
The FORESIGHT Project is a way for laboratories to benchmark against one another in such meaningful ways. But over its last decade, it has relied on some time-consuming methods of putting together spreadsheets and collating data for the numbers to be crunched, the evaluations made. The project’s new software, FORESIGHT 2020, attempts to change that. It has automated most of the key tasks for a dozen laboratories—and promises to highlight both best practices and limitations in the places that are using it, project manager Max Houck told Forensic Magazine recently in conversation.