Addresses strict liability crime for drug sharers created by Massachusetts death by distribution statute and public health implications of drug induced homicide statutes. By MA Public Counsel Services and Health in Justice Action Lab, MA Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Filed in Jan. 2019.
Resources
Vital Statistics Reference Guidance, Number 2
Addresses the complexity of drug toxicity deaths and the challenging relationship between the existing diseases and the sequence in which diseases or injuries. Underscores the need for a thorough medical and death scene investigation.
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 …
American Bar Association Standards on DNA Evidence (2018)
Standards and best practices for the collection, preservation, and testing of DNA evidence and for its use at trial.
American Bar Association Standards on DNA Evidence (2018)Read More
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 …
DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST): Participant Manual
Randy Papetti, The Forensic Unreliability of The Shaken Baby Syndrome
NC DHHS Drug Evaluation & Classification Program
Contains information about requirements for DRE certification and the DRE protocol for North Carolina.
State v. McPhaul, 256 N.C. App. 303 (2017)
The Court of Appeals applied the new Daubert test for expert testimony and held that trial court abused its discretion by allowing the State’s expert witness’s testimony about fingerprint evidence. A petition for discretionary review was granted by the NC Supreme Court which subsequently found that discretionary review was improvidently granted, leaving intact the Court …
Forensic DNA Analysis: A Primer for Courts
In Nov. 2017, the Royal Society published this primer to assist the UK judiciary when handling DNA and serology evidence in the courtroom. The primer provides a good introduction to forensic DNA analysis, including a description of different types of DNA mixture interpretation software.
North Carolina Juvenile Defender Manual: Chapter 7, Capacity to Proceed
Chapter 7 of the Juvenile Defender’s Manual (Oct. 2017) focuses on juvenile defenders who may lack the capacity to proceed.
North Carolina Juvenile Defender Manual: Chapter 7, Capacity to ProceedRead More
Forensic Science Assessments: A Quality and Gap Analysis – Latent Fingerprint Examination
The 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Forensic Science Assessments: A Quality and Gap Analysis – Latent Fingerprint Examination found that while latent fingerprint examiners can successfully rule out most of the population from being the source of a latent fingerprint based on observed features, insufficient data exist to determine how unique fingerprint features …
Forensic Science Assessments: A Quality and Gap Analysis – Latent Fingerprint ExaminationRead More
Marijuana-Impaired Driving A Report to Congress
July 2017 NHTSA report – The report describes the absorption, distribution and elimination of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinal (THC) the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana, in the body. It contrasts this process with the absorption, distribution and elimination of alcohol in the body, as they are very different processes. The poor correlation of THC concentrations in the blood …
Machine Testimony
Yale Law Journal article by Prof. Andrea Roth