North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services
// by Sarah Olson
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is offering a new program of scholarship assistance for indigent defense providers. The scholarships will be available to public defenders, contractors, and private appointed counsel to allow defenders to attend criminal defense training programs nationwide. These grant-supported scholarships will be awarded in the form of full or …
NACDL Offers New Training Scholarship for Indigent Defense AttorneysRead More
// by Sarah Olson
Many attorneys have asked me what should be included in a lab report from the State Crime Lab. Often in District Court DWI cases or through discovery, defense attorneys receive only a 1-2 page report called a Lab Report. For each case that is analyzed by the State Crime Laboratory, the lab produces a Case …
// by Sarah Olson
by Emily Zvejnieks Familial DNA testing, an innovative yet highly controversial technique, is being used in several states. This blog post will provide an explanation of what familial DNA testing entails and briefly discuss its Fourth Amendment implications. In standard DNA testing where there is an unknown sample, that unknown sample may be compared against …
// by Sarah Olson
A study looking at how the conclusions of forensic anthropologists may be influenced by extraneous information highlights the importance of protecting all scientists from potentially biasing information. Forensic anthropologists determine the gender, national origin, and age of a person at the time of death. In some cases this determination must be based solely on skeletal …
// by Sarah Olson
Law enforcement agencies nationwide have been secretly using IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity) catchers to track suspects through their cell phones. Typically this surveillance occurs without a warrant or court order. Also called “Stingray,” this device tracks cell phones using the radiofrequency signals radiating from the phone. The device is a shoebox-sized receptor that mimics …
// by Sarah Olson
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Riley v. California, the topic of cell phone forensics is on the mind of many attorneys. Cell tower location tracking is a related area where investigators gather information about a cell phone’s location using data from cellular towers contained in phone records. Attorneys should be aware that location …
Using cell tower data to track a suspect’s locationRead More
// by Sarah Olson
by M. Chris Fabricant and Karen Newirth The Innocence Project is seeking partners to litigate test cases involving unreliable forensic sciences and eyewitness misidentification. Attorneys with cases of potential interest should contact the IP directly at the email address provided below. On the morning of November 3, 1984, 63-year-old Ione Cychosz was found dead in …
// by Sarah Olson
Lab analysts at the State Crime Lab and forensic pathologists and toxicologists at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) are available to discuss cases with attorneys prior to trial. These experts can provide important information about the tests that were performed, the limitations of those tests, and the possibility of doing additional testing. Attorneys and …
Meeting with lab analysts and forensic pathologists prior to trialRead More
// by Sarah Olson
by Sarah Turberville, Senior Counsel, Criminal Justice Program, The Constitution Project on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 This article is re-posted from the National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) March newsletter. Please view the NAPD newsletter, available here, for additional articles relevant to effective criminal defense. On February 24th, the United States Supreme Court issued a per curiam reversal in the case …
Hinton v. Alabama: Effective Counsel and Forensic ExpertiseRead More
// by Sarah Olson
Professors Brandon Garrett and Gregory Mitchell of the University of Virginia School of Law are conducting research on how people evaluate forensic evidence, and are inviting lawyers to participate in this research. Participation is voluntary and anonymous and takes only a few minutes. The study involves a few questions about a hypothetical criminal case and …
Participants Needed for Online Study on Forensic EvidenceRead More
// by Sarah Olson
The North Carolina State Crime Laboratory has posted the position of lab director. The lab is seeking a candidate with a Bachelor’s degree, preferably in the physical or biological sciences with eight years of laboratory experience. The posting is open through November 25, 2013. Here is a link to the posting which describes additional qualifications. …
Director of North Carolina State Crime Laboratory position postedRead More
// by Sarah Olson
Defense attorneys may decide to make a motion for independent testing of forensic evidence in cases where either the State has chosen not to complete forensic testing of an item of evidence or where the State has tested the item and the defense would like it to be re-tested. This issue has come up more …
// by Sarah Olson
School of Government Professor Jessica Smith authored an informative post entitled Imposing Fees for Forensic Expert Testimony — Is It Constitutional? on the North Carolina Criminal Law blog this morning. The post looks at a new $600 fee imposed on defendants when a State Crime Lab or a local crime lab analyst testifies at trial regarding …
// by Sarah Olson
Recently, the State Crime Lab has undergone several rounds of changes and updates to their protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the analysis and interpretation of DNA evidence. Attorneys should be aware of these changes and that only cases worked on or after the effective date will be subject to the new policies. Previously-worked …
// by Sarah Olson
The NC Supreme Court decided several cases in June that dealt with the admissibility of testimony by substitute forensic analysts. The lead case in this series is State v. Ortiz-Zape, a case in which a forensic chemist testified for the state regarding the results that a non-testifying analyst produced using the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer …