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Plugging Holes in the Science of Forensics

By HENRY FOUNTAINIt was time, the panel of experts said, to put more science in forensic science.A report in February by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences found ?serious problems? with much of the work performed by crime laboratories in the United States. Recent incidents of faulty evidence analysis ? including the case of an Oregon lawyer who was arrested by the F.B.I. after the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings based on fingerprint identification that turned out to be wrong ? were just high-profile examples of wider deficiencies, the committee said. Crime labs were overworked, there were few certification programs for investigators and technicians, and the entire field suffered from a lack of oversight.But perhaps the most damning conclusion was that many forensic disciplines ? including analysis of fingerprints, bite marks and the striations and indentations left by a pry bar or a gun?s firing mechanism ? were not grounded in the kind of rigorous, peer-reviewed research that is the hallmark of classic science...continue to full post

Full post as published by Lethal Injection on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).