BBC News has posted a series of narrated images that describe various crime scene investigation techniques and laboratory tests.
Resources
Overcoming Defense Expert Testimony in Abusive Head Trauma Cases
National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse publication that provides information on how to rebut specific defense arguments.
Overcoming Defense Expert Testimony in Abusive Head Trauma CasesRead More
NC Child Medical Evaluation Program
CMEP has developed a statewide network of providers who perform medical and psychological assessments of children referred by DSS agencies. This website contains information about the program and other resources.
Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention publications that might be helpful in evaluating how a child abuse investigation was carried out.
Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guide that teaches techniques for investigating child deaths, including scene investigation, interview techniques, and reporting practices for investigators.
Additional bite mark articles
The bibliographies (here and here) contain citations to published articles on bite mark analysis. If you need access to these articles, contact Sarah Rackley Olson.
Cases Where DNA Revealed that Bite Mark Analysis Led to Wrongful Arrests and Convictions
Article by the Innocence Project identifying concerns with bite mark analysis and discussing five cases where individuals were convicted based largely on bite mark analysis, only to be proven innocent through DNA years later.
Cases Where DNA Revealed that Bite Mark Analysis Led to Wrongful Arrests and ConvictionsRead More
Forensic Ontology – Bitemark Evidence
Blog created by David C. Averill, DDS, and past president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology. It includes articles and news reports on the controversial area of bite mark analysis, as well as information about cases where bite mark evidence has played a role.
Innocence Project’s amicus brief
For a copy of the Innocence Project’s amicus brief in a Frye challenge to the admissibility of bite mark evidence, email Sarah Rackley Olson.
American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO) Reference Manual
As of 2016, the ABFO Standards and Guidelines no longer permit conclusions of “exact match” or that a perpetrator made a mark without a doubt. This marks a significant change in the field. The strongest conclusion permissible now is that a person is “not excluded as having made the bitemark.” See p. 94 and 102. …
American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO) Reference ManualRead More
PubChem
This National Institute of Health searchable database allows users to search for a compound and learn more about its chemical structure, uses, properties, toxicity, and other information.
Drug Identification Tool
This website contains a library of GCMS data for compounds and is organized by molecular weight, base peak and second base peak. This library may be useful for limited purposes.
Weighing Marijuana Reference
This document provides the relevant statutes and summarizes the case law on the issue of how marijuana should be weighed. It addresses issues such as whether water weight and mature stalks should be included. Links to the State Crime Lab’s relevant procedures are provided, as well as contact information of experts who are available to …
Measuring the Impact of Cognitive Bias in Fire Investigation
This 2012 report by Paul Bieber of the Arson Research Project finds that cognitive bias is found in the field of fire investigation. Makes recommendations for how to minimize these biases.
Measuring the Impact of Cognitive Bias in Fire InvestigationRead More
Habeas Relief From Bad Science: Does Federal Habeas Corpus Provide Relief for Prisoners Possibly Convicted on Misunderstood Fire Science?
by Marc Price Wolf, Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology (2009). Describes the shift in methodology and foundational principles that the field of fire investigation has undergone recently and discusses how habeas corpus relief can be utilized in arson cases.