Paper by retired Assistant Capital Defender Vince Rabil. Available upon request. Email sarah.r.olson@nccourts.org
The Diminished Capacity Defense in Capital Litigation: A Summary Explanation (2025)Read More
Featured Articles
Errors in toxicology testing and the need for full discovery
2025 Forensic Science International article available for full text download
Errors in toxicology testing and the need for full discoveryRead More
NACDL 4th Amendment Center Information Sheet
Describes assistance that NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center can provide to defense teams regarding digital evidence
Confrontation Clause Flowchart
Quick reference for analyzing admissibility of statements under the Confrontation Clause. Created by Phil Dixon in March 2025.
“Not Scientific” to Whom? Laypeople Misjudge Manner of Death Determinations as Scientific and Definitive
2024 Wrongful Convictions Law Review article by Jeff Kukucka and Oyinlola Famulegun on research study demonstrating that mock jurors interpret manner of death determinations to be scientific and definitive though they are not intended to be scientific according to forensic pathologists.
Methodological Problems in Every Black-Box Study of Forensic Firearm Comparisons
Full text article available for free download, summarizes critiques of study design of research on forensic firearm comparisons.
Methodological Problems in Every Black-Box Study of Forensic Firearm ComparisonsRead More
Is It an Accident or Abuse? Researchers Develop Predictive Models for Pediatric Head Injuries
NIJ-supported research has enabled biomechanical experts to improve predictive models of head injuries in children, helping physicians and law enforcement to better distinguish between accidental injury and abuse.
Improving Analysis of “Trace DNA” Evidence
NIJ report on use of direct PCR which may eliminated the loss of DNA that traditionally occurs during DNA extraction and quantitation
Judging Firearms Evidence
The Effect of Legal Hemp on Drug Dog Sniffs
Jeff Welty posted a 2-part series on the effect of legal hemp on drug dog sniffs on the SOG’s blog, North Carolina Criminal Law. They are linked here: Part 1 Part 2
The “Magnificent Seven Errors” in Forensic Autopsy Practice: The Italian Context
This article provides a framework for identifying potential errors in death investigations. Attorneys should consider whether any of these are potential issues in their homicide cases. The types of errors identified are: oversights in autopsy technique, incorrect collection of photographic and video material, unauthorized attendance at the autopsy, missing/mistaken reporting at any stage of the …
The “Magnificent Seven Errors” in Forensic Autopsy Practice: The Italian ContextRead More
Study Assesses the Accuracy and Reproducibility of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
Black box study of bloodstain pattern analysts finds contrasting conclusions due to terminology; highlights importance of establishing consensus standards.
Study Assesses the Accuracy and Reproducibility of Bloodstain Pattern AnalysisRead More
A Re-Analysis of Repeatability and Reproducibility in the Ames-USDOE-FBI Study
New Directions in Eyewitness Evidence Research and Practice: After the 2014 National Academy of Sciences Report
This report reviews advances in research and in our criminal legal system since the release of the 2014 NAS report. We base our findings on a systematic scoping review of empirical research in eyewitness identification, a workshop with researchers and legal professionals (November 2020), and surveys of leading respondents, as described below. This report also offers promising …
Cognitive biases in the peer review of bullet and cartridge case comparison casework: A field study
Research study on bullet and cartridge case comparison finding the odds of disagreement between examiners about the evidential strength of a comparison were approximately five times larger in the blind than in the non-blind procedure, with disagreement about 42.3% and 12.5% of the proposed conclusions, respectively. Also, the odds that their proposed conclusion was reported …