John Rubin, Professor of Public Law and Government at UNC School of Government authored this document in June of 2011.
Reports and Publications
North Carolina Civil Commitment Manual: Chapter 7, Automatic Commitment–Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
Chapter 7 of the North Carolina Civil Commitment Manual (2nd Ed. 2011) focuses on insanity and provides information specific to North Carolina for defense attorneys about the legal effect of a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity plea, the legal definition of insanity, the offenses affected, and the burden of proof.
North Carolina Civil Commitment Manual: Chapter 8, Commitment of Defendants Found Incapable of Proceeding
Chapter 8 of the North Carolina Civil Commitment Manual (2nd Ed. 2011) focuses on incapacity to proceed and includes a helpful capacity and commitment flowchart in Appendix 8-1.
Review of the FBI’s Progress Responding to the Recommendations from the Mayfield Case
Five years after issuing recommendations regarding the fingerprint misidentification in the Mayfield case (March 2006), this report by the Office of the Inspector General examines the FBI’s progress implementing the recommendations. …the FBI Laboratory has adopted other measures intended to reduce the risk that an examiner’s ‘gut’ reaction might lead to an incorrect conclusion, including …
Review of the FBI’s Progress Responding to the Recommendations from the Mayfield CaseRead More
Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes
Lisa Lit etal, 14:3 Anim Cogn 387(2011) – researchers evaluated eighteen drug and/or explosive detection dog/handler teams to determine how human beliefs affect detector dog outcomes.
Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomesRead More
Crime Scene Forensic Evidence Collection Guidelines For Defense Attorneys
by John Louis Larsen and Daniel K. Harris, The Champion (NACDL) 28-35 (October 2011). A guide for defense attorneys for assessing whether law enforcement followed standardized evidence processing and collection guidelines, as per those promulgated by the FBI and DOJ.
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The Child Cases
PBS Frontline, ProPublica and NPR investigation from June 28, 2011 on sudden child deaths and the scientific research that has shown that investigations have been mishandled by medical examiners and coroners. This link contains a 30 minute documentary that can be watched online as well as articles and interviews on the topic
Science-Dependent Prosecution and the Problem of Epistemic Contingency: A Study of Shaken Baby Syndrome
Law review article by Deborah Tuerkheimer that describes the trajectory of Shaken Baby Syndrome in criminal courts and critiques how criminal justice evolves in the wake of scientific change.
Shaken-Baby Syndrome Faces New Questions in Court
by Emily Bazelon, New York Times Magazine
The Need for a Research Culture in the Forensic Sciences
by Jennifer L. Mnookin, Simon A. Cole, Itiel E. Dror, Barry A. J. Fisher, Max M. Houck, Keith Inman, David H. Kaye, Jonathan J. Koehler, Glenn Langenburg, D. Michael Risinger, Norah Rudin, Jay Siegel, and David A. Stoney. Explores to what extent forensic sciences need to change to develop a well-established scientific foundation. Finds that …
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Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third Edition
The National Resource Counsel authored this manual to assist judges in cases involving scientific and technical evidence. There are chapters on admissibility of expert testimony, DNA evidence, statistics, toxicology, medical testimony, and many more forensic topics.
Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third EditionRead More
Fallible DNA evidence can mean prison or freedom
by Linda Geddes, New Scientist, August 11, 2010 – gives an explanation of how subjectivity and bias affect DNA analysis. Discusses issues such as partial profiles, allelic drop-out and drop-in, mixtures, and thresholds for analysis.
Shooting-Incident Reconstruction Within a Room
by John Louis Larsen, 8 Evidence Tech. Mag. 14-17 (July-August 2010). Provides protocols for documenting a bullet-hole entry and for event reconstruction.
An Independent Review of the SBI Forensic Laboratory
Chris Swecker and Michael Wolf were retained by the NC Attorney General’s Office to conduct an independent review of the Forensic Biology Section of the SBI Crime Laboratory. The investigation began in March 2010 and focuses on policies, procedures and practices between 1987 and 2003. The Appendix to the report contains a list of affected …
An Independent Review of the SBI Forensic LaboratoryRead More
Forensic Trace DNA: A Review
by Roland AH van Oorschot etal. Investigative Genetics (2010). In a very accessible way, this article describes issues associated with what is often called “touch DNA.” Topics covered include evidence collection, DNA extraction, amplification, profiling and interpretation of trace DNA samples.