Forensic Science in the News

You can read the full story here from the Trib Live This case concerns a Tom David case – Kunco – which has long been recognised as an issue case that was bound to come around to appeal.  A UV photograph (remind you of Mike West?  Indeed Tom David said he received …

Original story in full at the Altoona Mirror – here. Defense attorneys for Paul Aaron Ross say there is no valid science linking a bite mark to a specific person, so when Ross’ murder case comes up for a retrial in Blair County court, that evidence should be excluded. At …

A long running case with flawed bitemark evidence at its heart has reached a new hurdle.  While the judge agreed that the BM evidence was poor, could not be used to link to a suspect and is this case was given inappropriate weight, she felt that, even with the bitemark excluded …

The head of the UK Supreme Court has recommended Jury primers for forensic science in a piece called “Stop needless dispute of science in the courts” published in Nature this week. We have described the use of the Jury primers before – they present a means of showing the trier …

Peter and Mary Bush, forensic scientists in the School of Dental Medicine, had much to celebrate during the past week. Their work — several studies that found the science behind bite-mark analysis unsound — helped lay the foundation for a landmark recommendation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to ban …

Here is how the Houston Post described the findings from the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Why not listen to the NPR interview with Chris Fabricant on the impact of this finding here. There were bite marks on John Sweek’s arm when police found him stabbed to death on his kitchen …

This article from the BBC shows the impact of the Texas decision and why, while many may have hoped that it would be restricted to Texas, it will have an enduring impact on justice systems worldwide. “I personally never could believe or understand the bite mark testimony, and some of …

“It’s too subjective. There is no criteria. As a result, I’m ready to face the absence of it in court, rather than have it be used,” Richard Alpert, Commission member So, after hours of testimony, hundreds of pages of anecdote and opinion, and, sadly, nowhere near enough science the Texas …