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Article • April 15, 2025 • from CLN May, 2025
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt? Fingerprint Evidence’s Troubling Flaws by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney In March 2004, four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, were bombed. Spain’s National Police recovered a blue plastic bag filled with detonators and traces of explosives. Forensic experts used the standard practice of fumigating the bag …
Cops’ Lie-Detecting Delusion: They Can’t Spot Lies Based on Nonverbal Cues or ‘Abnormal’ Behavior—Yet Keep Lying to Themselves (and Ruining Lives) That They Can by David Kim by David Kim From the earliest forms of human communication, deception has been an inescapable part of social interaction. People lie—frequently and for …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
A Guilty Voice: Is Voice Analysis Junk Science or Reliable Evidence? by Clarence Walker Jr. by Clarence Walker Jr. Law enforcement officials believe our vocal cords betray us with every syllable we speak. Welcome to a world of technology capable of listening to a human voice and then determining whether …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Filed under: junk science, Use of a Gun
Study Confirms New York City’s ShotSpotter Deployment Was a Costly Misstep by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson SoundThinking’s ShotSpotter technology, which uses echolocation to alert police and emergency medical services (“EMS”) to potential gunshots detected by microphones across a city, has faced mounting scrutiny. While sales and public relations …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Bite Marks and Broken Justice: A Louisiana Man’s Life and Death Struggle Against Junk Science by David Kim by David Kim In a Louisiana courtroom last September, attorney Scott Greene stood before those in attendance and issued a stark warning: The video they were about to see would unsettle them. …
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Grants Habeas Relief in ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ Case by Sam Rutherford by Sam Rutherford The Criminal Court of Appeals of Texas, the state’s highest court in criminal cases, granted a prisoner’s habeas corpus petition based on advances in science that undermined the validity of evidence …
Article • February 1, 2025 • from CLN February, 2025
Colorado Bureau of Investigation Admits Over 1,000 Cases Affected by DNA Test Misconduct by James Mills by James Mills The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) announced that more than 1,000 cases could be affected by the systematic deletion and falsification of data by forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods. Woods was …
Article • January 15, 2025 • from CLN February, 2025
Seeking Justice for Two: The DNA Scandal That Shook a Community by by Justyna Madenska This article explores the wrongful conviction of David Hehn and the unresolved murder of Gay Lynn Dixon, revealing systemic failures in forensic evidence handling and the justice system’s pursuit of true justice. In 1982, the …
Article • December 15, 2024 • from CLN January, 2025
Touch-Transfer DNA Remains Misunderstood and Still Poses High Risk of Wrongful Conviction by J.D. Schmidt by J.D. Schmidt Modern criminal investigations, especially cold homicide cases, often rely on what is known as “touch-transfer” DNA to identify the perpetrator. But in recent years, developments in DNA research have shown that there …
Article • December 15, 2024 • from CLN January, 2025
Scent of Death Evidence Admitted at Indiana Murder Trial by Sam Rutherford by Sam Rutherford In May 2024, John Hallett, 54, of Michigan City was found guilty of murdering his roommate and then dismembering the body. Prosecutors obtained the conviction by relying on novel “scent of death” evidence to prove …
Article • November 1, 2024 • from CLN November, 2024
University of Maryland Carey Law Pioneers Forensic Defense Clinic by The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in Baltimore has launched the nation’s first Forensic Defense Clinic designed to equip law students with specialized knowledge in forensic evidence and its role in criminal law. This clinic, led …
Article • October 1, 2024 • from CLN October, 2024
New Research Method Leads to Better Touch DNA Recovery and Development of Genetic Profiles by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney Touch DNA—“the invisible biological traces deposited through a person’s skin’s contact with an object or other person”—can be found at crime scenes, but detection presents a challenge for officers attempting …
Article • September 1, 2024 • from CLN September, 2024
DNA Databases, Privacy Concerns, and Noble Cause Bias by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson Networked Privacy and DNA Dana Boyd who was one of the first to describe the idea of Networked Privacy has pointed out that choice is not really individual in the network. That is, the choices …
Article • September 1, 2024 • from CLN September, 2024
Filed under: junk science, DNA Evidence
Years of Warnings Ignored as DNA Analyst at Colorado Crime Lab Allegedly Cut Corners, Her Misconduct Casts Doubt on Thousands of Cases by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott 20th Judicial District Court Judge Patrick Butler unsealed a troubling internal affairs report from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) …
Article • September 1, 2024 • from CLN September, 2024
Forensic Microbiology and Criminal Investigations by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney According to microbiologists, every individual has a “unique community of microorganisms on and within their body.” These communities, known as “microbiomes,” consist of microbes “specific to different parts of the body, can persist over long periods of time and …
Article • August 1, 2024 • from CLN August, 2024
Researchers Discover Wire-Cutting Evidence Is Too Unreliable for Court by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney According to an article appearing on June 10, 2024, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have concluded that wire-cutting evidence should not be admissible in court unless additional information about the …
Article • August 1, 2024 • from CLN August, 2024
Dozens of Prisoners in Colorado Notified About Potential Compromised DNA Evidence by In early July, dozens of incarcerated individuals in Colorado counties Arapahoe and Douglas, received a promising letter from the District Attorney’s office. DA John Kellner was notifying defendants in cases that could have been affected by allegations of …
False or Misleading Forensic Evidence Plays an Oversized Role in Wrongful Convictions by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott The National Institute of Justice (“NIJ”) published a paper titled “The Impact of False or Misleading Forensic Evidence on Wrongful Convictions,” providing grim facts and figures on one of the …
Article • July 15, 2024 • from CLN July, 2024
Filed under: junk science
Minnesota Becomes Third State to Restrict ‘Excited Delirium’ by Jordan Arizmendi by Jordan Arizmendi   On May 24, 2024, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, signed a law prohibiting police officers from being trained about “excited delirium,” a widely rejected diagnosis characterized by a state of extreme agitation and delirium. The …
Article • June 15, 2024 • from CLN June, 2024
Junk Science Convicted an Innocent Sailor, DNA Exonerated Him Decades Later with the Help of the Innocence Project by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Knott   Keith Harward, 67, was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, a state whose motto is “To be, rather than to seem.” Unfortunately for Harward, …
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