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News in Brief

Article • May 15, 2025 • from CLN June, 2025

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: On March 31, 2025, in State of Alabama v. Mac Marquette, Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott denied former Decatur Police Department officer Marquette’s motion for self-defense immunity in the fatal shooting of Steve Perkins. According to the Associate Press, the denial depended legally on …

News in Brief

Article • February 1, 2025 • from CLN February, 2025

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: Phoenix resident Penny McCarthy, 66, endured a terrifying ordeal after United States Marshals arrested her at gunpoint in her home, mistaking her for a fugitive, according to KNXV. Body camera footage shows officers refusing to confirm her identity despite McCarthy repeatedly asking them. “I truly …

News In Brief

Article • November 1, 2024 • from CLN November, 2024

Filed under: News in Brief

News In Brief by Alabama: WSFA out of Mobile reported that on August 22 and 23, 2024, a sex trafficking sting operation occurring in several jurisdictions resulted in the arrests of 11 men. Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham and other law enforcement officials discussed the results at a press conference. …

News in Brief

Article • September 1, 2024 • from CLN September, 2024

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: On June 29, 2024, the Tempe police department posted a Facebook message regarding an award that two of its officers had just received. “Congratulations to Officer Zachary Hyde and Officer Gavin Young. Last night both received the Hero Award at the 35th annual Mothers Against …

Non-Toxic Fluorescent Spray Reveals Fingerprints in Seconds

Article • May 15, 2024 • from CLN May, 2024

Filed under: Commentary/Reviews, junk science, Fingerprint Evidence, Latent Fingerprint Evidence

Non-Toxic Fluorescent Spray Reveals Fingerprints in Seconds by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney A team of scientists from China’s Shanghai Normal University in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bath have developed a fluorescent spray that reveals fingerprints in seconds without compromising any potential DNA evidence. The …

Interactive Lineups Are a Promising New Tool to Improve Accuracy of Suspect Identification by Eyewitnesses

Article • March 15, 2024 • from CLN March, 2024

Filed under: Commentary/Reviews, witness misidentification, Eyewitness Testimony, Lineups

Interactive Lineups Are a Promising New Tool to Improve Accuracy of Suspect Identification by Eyewitnesses by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott Wrongful convictions are a troubling aspect of the criminal justice system in the United States. Most experts estimate the rate of falsely convicted prisoners to be between …

Identification Via DNA, Fingerprints, and 3D Scanning of Footwear

Article • February 15, 2024 • from CLN February, 2024

Filed under: junk science

Identification Via DNA, Fingerprints, and 3D Scanning of Footwear by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney Eyewitness identifications of possible perpetrators of crime are often unreliable. Scientific identifications by comparison of DNA profiles and fingerprint exemplars are, by far, more trustworthy. But coming soon may be identifications made by analysis of …

U.K. Study of Consistency Among Pairs of Child Witnesses Shows Surprising Results

Article • November 1, 2023 • from CLN November, 2023

Filed under: Eyewitness Testimony, Eyewitness Identification

U.K. Study of Consistency Among Pairs of Child Witnesses Shows Surprising Results by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke A recent report on a study of the consistency among pairs of child witnesses published in the U.K. journal Legal and Criminological Psychology showed the surprising result that neither the age of …

New English Law Allows Government to View a Year’s Worth of Browsing History from an Individual Approved by a Judge

Article • June 23, 2023

Filed under: Internet, Searches - Cellphones/Computers/Internet, Electronic Surveillance

New English Law Allows Government to View a Year’s Worth of Browsing History from an Individual Approved by a Judge by Wired reported on May 15, 2023, that law enforcement actors in the United Kingdom have decided to move forward with introducing vast new surveillance capabilities on a national scale. …

News in Brief

Article • May 15, 2023 • from CLN June, 2023

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arkansas: The DOJ announced on Jan. 24, 2023, that two former police officers in Crawford County were charged with excessive use of force after beating a man at a gas station. The New York Times reported that the two former officers, Zackary King and Levi White, …

News in Brief

Article • February 15, 2023 • from CLN March, 2023

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Alabama: The DOJ Civil Rights Division announced on Oct. 21, 2022, that a former sheriff’s deputy in Dallas County was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in the middle of the day on Jan. 30, 2020. The Miami Herald reported that the then-active deputy, …

News in Brief

Article • June 15, 2022 • from CLN July, 2022

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by News in Brief Britain: A court hearing at London’s highest legal body is scheduled for late June 2022, The Guardian reported. It will concern a lawsuit brought against the City of London police for allegedly wrongfully tasering a Black man on April 7, 2018. Case was …

News in Brief

Article • May 15, 2022 • from CLN June, 2022

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Connecticut: On Apr. 15, 2022, a Norwalk police officer of 10 years was arrested of assaulting a family member. WVIT, a news channel serving New Britain, reports that officer Jermaine Nash, 44, was arrested after a call was made to police in the mid-afternoon of the …

News in Brief

Article • January 15, 2022 • from CLN February, 2022

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by Arizona: The family of a homeless and mentally ill man who died after being restrained by Phoenix cops in 2017 will get $5 million from the city, after a 7-2 city council vote in favor of the payment on November 17, 2021, according to a report …

London Cop Pleads Guilty to Secretly Filming Nude Women

Article • September 17, 2021

Filed under: Harassment by Police, Photographing

London Cop Pleads Guilty to Secretly Filming Nude Women by A London police officer pleaded guilty on September 13, 2021, to using hidden cameras to covertly film the genitals of naked women who answered his advertisement for models to pose for more tasteful nude photographs. The cop, 40-year-old Neil Corbel, …

America Ranked 17th in Human Freedoms

Article • August 16, 2021

Filed under: Liberty Interests

America Ranked 17th in Human Freedoms by Kevin Bliss by Kevin Bliss   Personal freedom on the planet has been on the decline since at least 2008. The Cato Institute in the U.S. and Canada’s Fraser Institute place New Zealand at the top, while the U.S. and the United Kingdom …

News in Brief

Article • July 15, 2021 • from CLN August, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by California: Two San Diego Police Department (SDPD) officers repeatedly punched a homeless Black man they were arresting on May 12, 2021, after they allegedly caught him attempting to urinate in public. According to a report by the Washington Post, the incident was captured on a cellphone …

News in Brief

Article • May 15, 2021 • from CLN June, 2021

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by California: On March 12, 2021, federal prosecutors in California unsealed indictments against a pair of policemen accused of pocketing cash and drugs confiscated from suspects they pulled over in traffic stops. According to a report by Law & Crime, former Rohnert Park Police Department officers Brendon …

News in Brief

Article • July 15, 2020 • from CLN August, 2020

Filed under: News in Brief

News in Brief by California: A series of racist and anti-Muslim posts on social media allegedly has ties to a private group of active and retired San Jose Police officers calling themselves 10-7ODSJ, a reference to the police code for “off duty,” mercurynews.com reports. In June 2020, four of them …

New Fingerprint Test Can Distinguish Whether Person Ingested Cocaine or Only Touched It

Article • April 15, 2020 • from CLN May, 2020

Filed under: Drug Testing

New Fingerprint Test Can Distinguish Whether Person Ingested Cocaine or Only Touched It by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney Forensic researchers from the University of Surrey in southeast England have revealed they can examine fingerprints to determine whether a person has ingested cocaine or merely touched cocaine. In 2017, Melanie …