Jan. 27, 2020 North Carolina Criminal Law blog post by Shea Denning
Featured Articles
Defending Death by Distribution Cases
Jan. 21, 2020 NC Criminal Law blog post by Phil Dixon with links to resources for defenders litigating the new crimes of death by distribution and aggravated death by distribution in G.S. 14-18.4 cases.
Mock Jurors’ Evaluation of Firearm Examiner Testimony
Garrett, B.L, Scurich, N, & Crozier, W.E. (2020)
Mock Jurors’ Evaluation of Firearm Examiner TestimonyRead More
Drug-Induced Homicide Defense Toolkit
The Health In Justice Action Lab of the Northeastern University School of Law has created a toolkit for attorneys defending death by distribution of drugs. The toolkit includes recent favorable caselaw and links to the amicus curiae briefs filed by the Action Lab and its partners that were successful in those cases; an expanded section …
Fingerprints and Miscarriages of Justice: ‘Other’ Types of Error and A Post-Conviction Right to Database Searching
This July 2018 article by Simon Cole and Barry Scheck provides a systematic and comprehensive examination of “other” types of error in friction ridge analysis beyond erroneous identifications, including 40 publicly-exposed cases containing these errors. The article also calls for access to post-conviction database searching of fingerprint and other forensic databases.
No Longer the Gold Standard: Probabilistic Genotyping is Changing the Nature of DNA Evidence in Criminal Trials
Compelled Decryption Primer
NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center has published a primer on whether law enforcement can compel a suspect to unlock or decrypt a device.
A Systematic Challenge to the Reliability and Admissibility of Firearms and Toolmark Identification
Article by Adina Schwartz, in The Columbia Science and Technology Law Review
Spark of Truth: Can Science Bring Justice to Arson Trials?
This October 2011, Discover Magazine article by Douglas Starr explains how the science of fire investigation has evolved in recent years and discusses why certain findings that have traditionally been interpreted as evidence of arson have been debunked. This article is an excellent reference for attorneys who are seeking additional information about fire investigation or …
Spark of Truth: Can Science Bring Justice to Arson Trials?Read More
Certainty and Uncertainty in Reporting Fingerprint Evidence
Jury study evaluating how potential jurors react to different language used by fingerprint examiners to express their conclusions. Available for free download.
Certainty and Uncertainty in Reporting Fingerprint EvidenceRead More
Feigned Consensus: Usurping the Law in Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma Prosecutions
Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1461, 2019 by Keith Findley et al. This article, coauthored by four law professors, two physicians, and a physicist, demonstrates that there is very much a live controversy about the SBS/AHT hypothesis and maintains that, under traditional principles of Evidence law, physicians should not be permitted to …
New Approaches to Digital Evidence Acquisition and Analysis
Overview of NIJ research on new approaches to acquiring and analyzing digital media.
New Approaches to Digital Evidence Acquisition and AnalysisRead More
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS): In Scientific Evidence, Even ‘Gold Standard’ Techniques Have Limitations
by Joanna Gin and Edward Imwinkelreid. UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper, available for free download. Like nuclear DNA testing, GC/MS analysis has important limitations. Courts should not assume it is a nearly infallible technique. When GC/MS is used in drug testing, the court must inquire as to the mode of analysis: full scan, selective …
Machine Testimony
Yale Law Journal article by Prof. Andrea Roth
Forensic bitemark identification: weak foundations, exaggerated claims
Nov. 2016 Journal of Law and Biosciences article.
Forensic bitemark identification: weak foundations, exaggerated claimsRead More