{"id":11838,"date":"2010-10-12T13:50:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T18:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=11838"},"modified":"2010-10-12T13:50:05","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T18:50:05","slug":"problems-aplenty-with-forensic-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/10\/problems-aplenty-with-forensic-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Problems Aplenty With Forensic Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last weekend I had the pleasure to participate in a conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers entitled, \u201cWhatever Happened to the Science in Forensic Science?\u201d\u00a0 The conference centered upon the 2009 report <\/a>by the National Academy of Science (NAS) that confirmed suspected and significant concerns about how the criminal justice system had been using science for decades. \u00a0\u00a0And as if the NAS report wasn\u2019t bleak enough, a number of speakers pointed to looming problems with DNA evidence, heretofore the vaunted \u201cgold standard\u201d for forensic science, and even with medical experts who diagnose child abuse.\u00a0 In sum, the whole field is starting to resemble a mass of toxic Hungarian red sludge that is oozing over and through the law\u2019s inadequate bulwarks. \u00a0(And no, I don\u2019t believe that the answer is the Daubert<\/em> \u201creliability\u201d standard, which has proven to be ineffectual in most ways and pernicious in others.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kudos for organizing the conference go to Amelia Bizzaro (Law \u201803).\u00a0 The conference drew excellent criminal lawyers and forensic experts from across the country (Boston, New York, Phoenix) as well as locally talented lawyers, such as Jerry Buting and Craig Albee.\u00a0 Professor Paul Giannelli (Case Western) spoke about the NAS report itself while I discussed its impact on Wisconsin law governing expert evidence.\u00a0 Paul and I agreed that the NAS report itself could be used to cross-examine forensic experts about deficiencies in their methodologies and theories, an inexpensive yet effective way of putting this information before a jury.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The NAS report is must reading for all criminal trial lawyers.\u00a0 The report explained in detail what had been suspected for some time: the methods and theories underlying a host of forensic sciences techniques lacked rigor and, in many instances, any objective reliability whatsoever. \u00a0\u00a0Ballistics, tool mark identifications, fingerprints, handwriting, bite mark evidence, and arson investigations, to name just a few, were roundly criticized.\u00a0 The NAS report\u2019s rebuke was so devastating that just three months after its publication the Supreme Court relied on the report in holding that crime lab analysts must appear at trial, under oath, to explain their findings instead of just providing a terse paper report.\u00a0 See Massachusetts v. Melendez-Diaz<\/a>, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 2537 (2009) (Scalia, J.).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yet the conference signaled problems that go beyond the NAS report and to the heart of what we thought was \u201csolid\u201d science.\u00a0 Marvin Schecter, who has shaken the trees in New York (and pretty much any where he goes), previewed unsettling new research, soon to be published, that will likely tarnish DNA\u2019s luster as a gold standard.\u00a0 Put differently, DNA may not be all its cracked up to be.\u00a0 Nor is medical science itself immune from criticism.\u00a0 Dr. Rich Kaplan, a Minneapolis-based pediatrician and child sexual abuse expert, discussed the stunningly significant rates of misdiagnoses of such abuse by ER docs and primary care physicians.\u00a0 And in making his points, Kaplan showed a score of god-awful pictures depicting children\u2019s diseased and injured genitalia that, as it turns out, had not been caused by sexual abuse. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0In short, the conference raised provocative questions that will likely take decades to work through in light of the scant resources available to address them.\u00a0 We can avoid the perils of toxic Hungarian red sludge easily enough \u2013 stay out of Hungary.\u00a0 The ooze emanating from our own criminal justice system is, however, all around us and cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend I had the pleasure to participate in a conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers entitled, \u201cWhatever Happened to the Science in Forensic Science?\u201d\u00a0 The conference centered upon the 2009 report by the National Academy of Science (NAS) that confirmed suspected and significant concerns about how the criminal justice system 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