Trace Evidence
Trace Evidence Resources on forensicresources.org
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 …
Tribble v. U.S., 447 A.2d 766 (D.C. 1982).
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, …
State v. Bridges, No. 90 CRS23102-04, 2015 WL 12670468 (N.C. Super. Ct. Oct. 1, 2015).
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
Bridges Amicus Brief
Filed by the Innocent Network in support of the defendant.
Bridges Motion for Appropriate Relief Consent Order
Forensic Science Laboratory Manual and Workbook
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
FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades
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 …
A Simplified Guide to Trace Evidence
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 …
FORENSICS@NIST 2020
Offered by NIST
Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical Evidence
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
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 …
Trace Evidence Data Workshop: Improving Technology and Measurement in Forensic Science
Offered By: The National Institute of Standards and Technology. Multiple Speakers. Achieved Videos Available.
Trace Evidence Data Workshop: Improving Technology and Measurement in Forensic ScienceRead More
Forensic Database Trace Evidence Table
Databases which include reference collections of trace evidence for fibers, glass, automobile identification, paint, tape, plastic bags, powders and impressions.
Improving a Database to Help Identify a Vehicle by Using Paint Fragments
For years, investigators have relied on the Paint Data Query database to identify the make of a vehicle by matching the physical attributes, chemical composition, and infrared spectrum of the paint, primers, and clear coating layers. However, there are concerns with the database, generic coding being one of them.
Improving a Database to Help Identify a Vehicle by Using Paint FragmentsRead More