North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services

You are here: Home / Archives for Trace Evidence

Trace Evidence

Trace Evidence Resources on forensicresources.org

//  by 

As part of our mission to help North Carolina’s public defense community understand forensic science evidence and achieve better outcomes for clients, the office of the Forensic Resource Counsel continues our efforts to make information related to forensic science evidence more easily accessible to attorneys through this website. In that vein, we are pleased to …

Trace Evidence Resources on forensicresources.orgRead More

Tribble v. U.S., 447 A.2d 766 (D.C. 1982).

//  by 

Santae A. Tribble was convicted of killing a taxi driver in 1978. He spent 28 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit. Key evidence at his trial came from separate FBI experts who testified that their scientific analysis proved with near certainty that Tribble’s hair was at the crime scene. However, …

Tribble v. U.S., 447 A.2d 766 (D.C. 1982).Read More

State v. Bridges, No. 90 CRS23102-04, 2015 WL 12670468 (N.C. Super. Ct. Oct. 1, 2015).

//  by 

In North Carolina, Timothy Scott Bridges was serving life for the rape of an 83-year old woman in Charlotte, in May of 1990. The evidence used at trial was microscopy hair evidence. He was convicted by a jury in Mecklenburg County for the charges of first-degree rape, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to …

State v. Bridges, No. 90 CRS23102-04, 2015 WL 12670468 (N.C. Super. Ct. Oct. 1, 2015).Read More

Forensic Science Laboratory Manual and Workbook

//  by 

Relevant Chapters Include: Experiment 8: Crime Scene Investigation: Safeguarding, Searching, Recognition, Documentation, Collection, Packaging, and Preservation of Physical Evidence Experiment 9: Trace Evidence Collection and Sorting Experiment 11: Examination of Human Hair  Experiment 14: Examination of Trace Quantities of Synthetic Fibers

Forensic Science Laboratory Manual and WorkbookRead More

FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades

//  by 

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered hair comparison evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 …

FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decadesRead More

A Simplified Guide to Trace Evidence

//  by 

Tiny fragments of physical evidence such as hairs, fibers from clothing or carpeting, or pieces of glass are examples of trace evidence, and can be transferred when two objects touch or when small particles are disbursed by an action or movement. This evidence can be used to reconstruct an event or indicate that a person …

A Simplified Guide to Trace EvidenceRead More

Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical Evidence

//  by 

A chemist at NIST has developed a portable version of his method for recovering trace chemicals such as environmental pollutants and forensic evidence including secret graves and arson fire debris. The briefcase-sized kit could enable detectives, field inspectors and others to carry with them a convenient version of NIST’s “headspace analysis” technique, which identifies solid or …

Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical EvidenceRead More

Glass Analysis

//  by 

The goal of this focus area is to improve the field of glass evidence analysis by developing new matrix-matched glass standards and by evaluating more objective approaches to evidence interpretation, such as the likelihood ratio. The latter will be accomplished through the development of glass databases that may be used to assign a significance to …

Glass AnalysisRead More