North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services
// by Sarah Olson
A three-judge panel in Asheville ruled today that Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson are innocent. The men who spent ten years in prison were exonerated by the judges’ ruling. This case which involved DNA testing that pointed to another suspect is the third case that has been heard by the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission and the …
Update to “Freedom on the line for two North Carolina men”Read More
// by Sarah Olson
By Mark Rabil Have you been given a report from the SBI Lab (now the State Crime Lab) that says the results of DNA testing are “inconclusive”? Well, you should not necessarily believe it. The Tamera Bean noncapital murder case that was tried in Asheboro this month is a case in point. Defense Attorney David …
// by Sarah Olson
By Charlotte Stewart, UNC Law Student This week a three-judge panel, formed as part of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission process, is hearing a case which could exonerate two North Carolina men of murder convictions. Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson were convicted of the murder of Walter Rodney Bowman in 2000 in Buncombe County. Last …
// by Sarah Olson
Any scientific measurement has some error associated with it. The concept of “measurement uncertainty” means that for even the most carefully performed measurement, the value of the thing being measured can never be known exactly – only an estimated value can be given. Measurement uncertainty and error rates can come into play in forensic science …
// by Sarah Olson
By Sarah Rackley Edited by Dr. Maher Noureddine, forensic DNA expert Note: Where State Crime Lab policies and procedures are referenced, I have cited to the most recent version that I have access to. What it is: CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) is the FBI’s program that allows forensic DNA laboratories to create and search …
// by Sarah Olson
If you are encountering an issue of forensic science for the first time or if you’re looking for an in-depth training on a specific topic, online forensic trainings are a great way to access the knowledge of national experts from the comfort of your home or office. I’ve compiled over 100 of these free trainings …
// by agrinesog
By Alyson Grine, UNC School of Government Defender Educator In S.L. 2011-283 (H 542), the General Assembly revised North Carolina Evidence Rule 702(a). Rule 702(a) guides the trial court in serving a gatekeeper function with regard to expert testimony; the trial court must make a preliminary determination as to whether a witness has the qualifications …
// by Sarah Olson
By Maher Noureddine, Ph.D. First in the series: Bodily Fluids and Forensics You may encounter cases in which the prosecution claims that SBI tests establish the presence of human saliva on the victim as part of its proof that an assault occurred. This type of evidence is often seen in sexual assault cases. In cases …
// by Sarah Olson
By Maher Noureddine, Ph.D. and Sarah Rackley The field of forensic investigation continues to reap tremendous benefits from advancements made in various scientific disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology and others. The detection and analysis of biological molecules have been at the forefront of this advancement, even to the level of revolutionizing forensics as we know …
Bodily Fluids and Forensics: Introduction to the SeriesRead More
// by Sarah Olson
By Daniel Shatz, Assistant Appellate Defender For those of you who just cannot get enough Duke Lacrosse news, the Court of Appeals issued an opinion on August 2, 2011 in a civil case involving a lawsuit filed by the DNA tester, Brian Meehan, against his former company, which had fired him “for cause.” Not surprisingly, the …
COA addresses bad lab reports in Duke Lacrosse caseRead More
// by Sarah Olson
The NC Attorney General’s Office has released the Report of the Ombudsman, completed by Judge Vince Rozier, Jr. prior to leaving that position. The Ombudsman’s report is preceded by a memo from the Acting North Carolina State Crime Lab Director Joseph R. John, Sr. responding to the report’s recommendations. A few of the recommendations that …
// by Sarah Olson
A Texas appeals court affirmed the exclusion of evidence that a dog identified a defendant’s scent in a “scent-lineup” in State v. Dominguez. The trial court found that human scent identification by a canine is not sufficiently reliable to be admitted in evidence in a criminal trial, based on the defendant’s motion to suppress and …
Texas court upholds exclusion of unreliable scent-lineup evidenceRead More
// by Sarah Olson
AmStat News, the monthly newsletter of the American Statistical Association, published an editorial, “Putting the Science in Forensic Science: Helping Congress and the administration do what is possible” on August 1, 2011. The editorial, written by Clifford Spiegelman, Adina Schwartz, and Kate Philpott, presents recommendations of how to implement forensic science reform proposals that have …
“Putting the Science in Forensic Science” EditorialRead More
// by Sarah Olson
New research by Canadian pathologist Evan Matshes challenges the opinion that death from shaking is due to brain trauma characterized by the “traditional triad” of injuries: subdural bleeding, retinal bleeding and brain swelling. His research, published in the July 2011 edition of the journal of American Forensic Pathology (available here: Shaken infants die of neck …
// by Sarah Olson
Posted by Sarah Rackley Edited by Dr. Maher Noureddine, forensic DNA expert The SBI lab started analyzing “touch DNA” around 2006. Now that the lab is capable of analyzing this type of evidence, investigators are collecting it more often, and I am hearing about it coming up in more cases. So, what is touch DNA …