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Science Found Wanting in Nation?s Crime Labs

By standdown

That's the title of a news article in today's New York Times written by Solomon Moore.  LINK  Here's the top of this must-read:Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation?s pre-eminent scientific research group. The report by the National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month. People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting. The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 05, 2009 (boomark / email).