#Hair Evidence In Forensic Science

[forensicfield]

The Importance Of Hair As Biological Evidence In Forensic Science

In a criminal investigation, the finding of biological evidence such as hair is useful to establish the crime scene's significance, to link a suspect to a weapon or the crime scene itself, to support witness statements, or even... #forensicscience #hair

Continue reading The Importance Of Hair As Biological Evidence In Forensic Science

[roachymochi]

Study of the pattern variations on the wings of bats from the Lands between : an attempt at a comprehensive history of Marika

very long post ahead.

Among the many stupid details from Elden Ring, i was always interested in the "hidden meaning" behind the patterns on the underside of the bats wings :

This pattern right here. it's a bright orangish-red with many yellow-ish eyespots. I used to think it is quite similar to the visuals of the flame of the fell god, with the many swirling black spots.

Searching for a meaningful connection, i noticed a peculiarity in some bats. Near the stargazer ruin, around the sister's grave, there is a colony of bats with a different pattern : The entire wing is black, but edges are lined with many eyespot. These eyespotes look a lot like actual human eyes, the pupil is a dark purple-red and the iris is a bright yellow (I sadly have a trash setup and can't take a screenshot of this).

It looks a lot like a frenzied flame design. but why such a design ? and why only in this place ?

Searching for clues

Stargazer ruin is the place where we can find the Primal Glintstone Blade. Please not the dark fiber around the blade . Is that fabric, or maybe a lock of black wavy hair?

For context, the ritual evoked in this description is the same one that was accomplished by Sellen, probably several times. As seen on Sellen's Primal Glintstone :

So the Frenzy-patterned bats live near the place where a bloody body stealing ritual happened. This a nothing to do with Sellen, but is there any Sorcerer we know about that has an experience with the Frenzied flame ?

The history of Midra's Manse

(trust me i am getting somewhere)

Very short summary of what is known about Midra's Manse :

Midra and Nanaya where a couple, they probably expected a child at some point.

They had an incredible amount of Knowledge

The manse used to be a nice and flowery place, reminiscent of the shaman village.

They dabble in forbidden knowledge about the frenzied flame.

The Hornsent inquisition learned about it and slaughtered everyone.

Nanaya begged Midra to endure his torment

When we attack him, he succumb to the frenzied flame.

Nanaya is a mysterious figure in this story. We know very little about her. She's not a Hornsent, but not a Shaman either. Her words to Midra where either a lover's prayer or a witch's curse. And since she's already dead when we meet her, how can we deduce anything ?

By looking at her corpse.

Crime scene investigation

Two things are important here :

Nanaya's hair were a deep black and and slightly wavy. Not only are they similar to those found around the primal glinstone blade, they are also a distinguishing feature of the Carian Royal family. Please remember that the ancestor of the Carian Dinasty came from the mountaintop of the giants, as told on the stargazer heirloom (a link to stargazer ruins!)

2. For how horrific the inquisition purge seems to have been, her body seems fine ? You'd expect to see her maimed or tortured or something, but her body is just like there, like she is sleeping. in Elden ring's forensic science, this it is a soulless. Not like Godwyn, but like all the puppet's, and Sellen's body after you take the her primal glintstsone out of it, or maybe Irina who later became inhabited by Hyetta.

So Nanaya is of Astrologer descent, studied the frenzied flame, and add her soul extracted from her dead body at some point. At stargazer ruin,we find a soul extracting blade with a lock of hair similar to Nanaya's around it, and bats patterned with frenzied-flame imagery near it. For Elden Ring lore, this quite conclusive evidence that the two situation are linked.

But who could have Nanaya switched soul with ? and why ?

Interlude : Mithra and Nanaya in mythology.

Midra and Nanaya's names come from two real life gods, here is a quick summary of their thematic significance.

Nanaya : Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and sensuality. Her blessings bring luck, health, fertility and a long life. In an hymn singing her praise, she is described both as the "sun of her people", and "with the beauty of the moon". She was raised to the status of radiant sun goddess by her father. She is over all themed around the sun, it's light, it's fire as a source of warmth, and life, and joy, and motherhood.

Mithra (or Mitra) is an indo-persian god. He is a god of contract's, and the aspects of the sun, they day sky, and some aspects of war and royalty. He is often described as slaying a bull to bring regeneration to the world. He is associated in vast pasture in some text.

From here, we enter wild speculation territory

The place of the Manse, and it's master, in Shadowland History. (Speculations)

From the size of the manse, and the amount of knowledge stored inside, Midra used to be at least extremely wealthy. But he was also very wise, as seen in a few item description. Given that his name is referencing an ancient god of contract, and royalty and wealth, Midra was most likely a lord of some kind. Not a warlord, but a wise king who knew navigate tricky politics to ensure the peace of his people.

Taking the painting of the manse before the tragedy at face value, and the "vast pasture" part of Mithra's legend, we can guess Midra's domain was a verdant and flowery land. Maybe the shaman village used to be a part of it, considering the similarities in vegetation.

It is also likely that his domain was linked to the fingers, considering the three finger ruins are surrounding it (also note that it is three fingers, i'll come back to it)

Was Midra a hornsent ? Or was he just the lord of another country, forgotten in history ? Who knows. But what is certain is that the hornsent government was a violent one, and sooner or later they came to take what they wanted.

And Midra was no warlord. The flowery meadow aesthetic of his land does not bring to mind a people trained in the art of war. At the very least, if war broke out, they had no chance to win against the hornsent and their divine beasts.

So Midra, the wise, had to negociate for peace. He had to compromise. Maybe he could keep the peace in his domain, in exchange for a regular tribute of gold ? Maybe the many could still live, if just a few at to be sacrificed ?

So Midra took a hard decision. He sent out a few chaman's to the hornsent to keep the piece of his sunny realm. Maybe he knew what the hornsent did to his tributes. Maybe he didn't. (Please notes how Bonny village is build right next to Midra's domain).

It didn't matter. Because when the hornsent came back, asking for more ? What could Midra do ? Refuse, and see everything destroyed by an imperialist army ?

So he kept giving tributes to the hornsent. And none ever came back.

He probably comply entirely though. With all his knowledge he tried to find a way to turn the fate of his people. Maybe there was a prayer, a spell to save this sun blessed land ? To protect it's warmth, it's light, it's life ?

That is when a stranger, a young woman from the land of the fire giants, came to him with a solution.

Marika's role in all this

( Please take into consideration the fact that the Shadowland used to be at the center of the Land's between before it was sealed away by the Scadu Tree. Notice how the Chaman village, and the finger ruins near it, are neighboors to the mountain of the fire giant. )

Around that time, Chaman where slowly dying in the to-be-Shadowland. One of them, known by us as Marika, came into contact with the fingers, who told her of the greater will and gave her a mission, a way to get the power to change the world. (Please note that while Marika was supposedly in contact with the Two Fingers, we never see her set anywhere in the game).

From the description of the Furnace Visage, we learn the one thing that the hornsent feared.

"The fell god of fire haunts the sagas of the hornsent". Close to Marika's home town lies the land of the fire giants, who bear the flame of the fell god. So she traveled there, in hope that she could learn their secrets.

Things went quite badly at first. the fire giants wouldn't share the secret of their flame. but Marika met the Stargazer, and learned many things from them. About the stars, the moon, and the sun and how to harness their power. Via Metyr, Marika saw the Microcosm, and glanced at the truth within.

She also learned about the Primal Glintsone ritual. That is where she knew what she had to do. A way to get both the power the heal her land, bathed in rays of gold, and burn to the ground the empire of her tormentors.

She stole the body of Nanaya (or maybe disguised as her with the Mimic veil, also known as Marika's Mischief), and went on to get power from a sun-blessed land.

The seduction

disguised as Nanaya Marika managed to come back to her land and reach the manse of Midra the wise without getting caught by hornsent. She met the lord of this land, now old and withered by worry and despair. She shared with him what she learned about the star, and how to harness they power. There IS a way, she ensured him, to harness the power of the sun to save this land.

Together, they combined their knowledge to search for the proper ritual. For a way to grab the power of the fire star, and divide it, separating it's blessings and it's curse.

With time, they became lover, and Nanaya got pregnant with a child. However, there was a thing Midra never knew. About the peculiar flesh of his bride of shaman descent.

Please not that in the japanese text of the game, shamans like Marika are referred to as miko.

Before the shamans where slaughtered by the hornsent, their flesh used to be a blessing, allowing them to channel the gods and their power into their flesh. We see this with all of Marika's children, who's body are marked by the gods.

But let's come back to Marika-Nanaya and Midra. to accomplish their vision, they had to birth an heir. An heir worthy to be a lord, who could bear the power of the sun's fire. So, just has Marika bore the child Midra-lord-of-the-manse, she also bore the child of Midra-the-sun-god. She, litteraly, bore the power of the sun god melded harmoniously in her flesh.

Childrens of fire.

They had two childrens.

Each of them, made from the flesh and Marika. And for each of them, she abandoned a part of her flesh, and with it a part of the flame's power.

Because Marika had two goals.

She had to give birth to an heir of fire, to bring vengeance and destruction to the hornsent. But this fire could bear no light and no joy. So she had to separate the fire greatest curse from the rest.

She had to bring back her land to life. This fire had to bright endless warmth, and life, and delight. So she had to separate the fire greatest blessing.

Her first child was Messmer. His flame was certainly a flame of destruction. The dark fire of war and death, turning everything into ashes. But Messmer was also cursed by the base serpent who dwelled inside him.

Her second child was Melina. She to bore a vision of fire. But her flesh was too weak, and had no way to support the power of the flame. Her infant body was consumed alive,leaving only a small spine. Marika managed to save her spirit in someway, so she could still exist, burned and bodyless.

This utterly broke the couple.

Marika's fingers

Three times the Shadowland was blessed by the Greater will. Three time it send stars, and three time they came with the Fingers. Marika, chosen by the Greater Will, naturally was in contact with the three fingers, before they were cursed.

So, when Marika/Nanaya and Midra's children were born cursed, and they fell into despair, they pleaded the three fingers for help. Maybe Marika knew what would happen, maybe she didn't.

But this despair, the three fingers guidance, and Marika's determination to do anything to accomplish her goal, gave birth to an new kind of flame. A yellow flame of madness, born not from the desire for a cruel vengeance, but from the desire to destroy this unjust world in it's entirety.

A sickly yellow flame, color of the greater will itself, slowly burning a dark hole, the microcosm itself.

The coming of the frenzied flame to the manse was most likely very gradual and slow. But it grew out of control anyway. When the three finger, now smouldering with the vicious flame, gave their direct "blessing" to the untouchable, something add to be done.

The betrayal

The hornsent learned about this one way or another. They definitely couldn't let that pass, so they sent the inquisition to wipe out any trace of this curse and to make sure it didn't spread any further. They slaugthered everyone in the manse and inflicted hell upon Midra for his treason.

Nanaya was unharmed, not because of any kindness from the hornsent, but because Marika had already left this body, with the help of Messmer, to escape.

Maybe Marika alerted the hornsent herself, maybe not. What is certain however, is that she abandoned Midra, her lover, to endless torment, and cursed him to endure all of it.

leaving him to suffer alone could definitely be the betrayal we know she did from the story trailer. Or, it could be linked to her ascension to the summit of Enir-Ilim.

Marika's ascension to godhood

Despite all this suffering, Marika still had achieved part of her plan. She had abandoned all the parts of herself that could have stopped her. To her children, and to the manse, she gave all of the curses of the fire, all black and red and deadly. All the power she had left in herself was a blessing. Of warmth, of life, of joy, of abundance and eternity. Only the softest light of the fire, bathing it's surrounding in the purest rays of gold.

She was ready to cross the gate and become a god. And so she did.

There is no clear explanation to how she reached the top of the hornsent capital. Maybe it was a war, maybe she sneaked in disguised as someone else. Maybe she was caught, ready to be sacrificed to the gate with all the other shamans.

Once the gate was closed, she started building her kingdom of gold and abundance, of endless life devoid of death. Then, she only had to bring vengeance to the hornsent with the help of Messmer, and to clean up behind her so this cursed past could be forgotten.

Political cleanup

the Shadowlands in its entirety : This entire land was damned, and their were to many clue about Marika true history their. She couldn't take the risk to have people learn about her humanity and her flaws. Marika sealed the entire land behind a veil.

Leyndell's undeground : the omens. Omens are a cursed placed on her bloodline by the hornsent. Due to hatred or to fear of seeing her realm crumble, she had all of them killed or imprisoned where nobody could witness them.

Leyndell's underground : the nomads.

the nomads are a tribe from a far away land cursed with the frenzied flame. There is no way for them to go back to their homeland so they roam the Lands Between. Please not the finger imagery on their instrument, with a little hand at the tip. With all we know about them I think it is most likely that their homeland is the domain of Midra, blessed by the fingers then source of the frenzied flame, and doubly sealed by the inquisition and by the Scadu Tree. Living proof of Marika's biggest failure, likely witness of her true nature, and infected with a terrifying disease, Marika sealed them away under Leyndell to save her empire of gold.

Leyndell's underground : the three finger. They once guided here, but are now the reminder of her greatest sin and her greatest fear. Maybe the first thing she sealed off under the world. Please note how the deepest thing under Leyndell are probably the first to be imprisoned. Newer prisoner sent to higher layers of the Underground as the city was build.

Messmer : Marika did everything she could to save him, but could not. As an agent of her cruelty, and a living proof that she could not save everyone, she had to hide him in shame.

[plutotimeslot]

forensic science class shenanigans

In Junior Year (3rd) of High School I took a forensic science class. Normally classes had around 30 kids, but this was a new class at the school so there was only 15 weirdos in this one.

Loved the class, loved the teacher, learned a lot. Here's what happened.

Found out how absolute shit human memory is

Found out what bugs will eat me when I die

CUE existential crisis

Talked A LOT about geometry and what blood spatters can tell you

Talked about how if you purposely use your nondominant hand to kill someone, you can tell they are using the wrong hand. (with blood spatter patterns)

Laughed about criminals' stupidity

Laughed about police's stupidity

Put fiber and our own hair under a microscope

Was able to (fairly) accurately determine if classmates had EVER dyed and/or bleached their hair before.

Got to find out that my town is into choking, they just aren't good at doing it safely.

CUE existential crisis

Got to hold a brain (a real one, VERY wrinkly VERY textured)

Got to hold a swollen heart (some sort of heart disease)

Got to hold lungs (VERY spongey)

Get to touch fat (slimy and greasy, ew)

CUE existential crisis

Decided I never wanted to smell formaldehyde EVER AGAIN

Got to collect evidence from a real crime scene my teacher put together for us in an empty class room.

There were bloody footprints from shoes she borrowed from a fellow teacher.

Gave a presentation on who was the culprit and why for our final.

In the presentation my friend presented the last few slides

At the same time as the presentation, a Senior event was happening (involving the whole school) so I'm Feeling 22 played over the loud speakers during our presentation.

As my friend was finishing the slide the song was on full blast so the end of our presentation went like:

"And Mr. C took the hammer," EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT "and he swung once," IF WE JUST KEEP DANCING "twice, three times!" LIKE WE'RE TWENTY TWO-O-O

Thanks Taylor, you really enhanced our forensic science final lol

[thekiltongrammarwriter]

Some Pippa thoughts for today. Enjoy my ramble🫡 University Pippa Bellow

“Quantum Entanglements: Pippa’s Theorem of Love”

Pippa Fitz-Amobi, the girl who usually has her thoughts all organized and neatly cataloged in her brain? Yeah, well, she’s currently experiencing a major system malfunction. And by that, I mean her heart is doing this weird jittery dance, and her words are tripping over each other like clumsy puppies. ‘Okay, deep breaths, Pippa. You’ve faced serial killers, cryptic clues, and academic deadlines. Surely, confessing feelings for a girl can’t be that hard, right? ‘Wrong. So wrong.

One night, while dissecting a particularly baffling case, Pippa glances at you and realizes how captivating your eyes are. It’s not just the mystery that keeps her intrigued—it’s the girl sitting across from her. You frequent the same cozy coffee shop near campus. Pippa orders her usual black coffee, and you prefer a chai latte. One day, as you share a table, Pippa notices the way your fingers delicately hold the cup. The warmth of the drink contrasts with the chill in the air, and Pippa’s heart skips a beat. She wonders if it’s the girl or the caffeine causing her fluttery feelings.

During a lecture, Pippa catches your eye from across the room. The professor drones on about forensic evidence, but all Pippa can focus on is the curve of the your lips as you smile at something Jane from political science says. She wonders if you notice her too. Maybe it’s the way the your hair falls over your shoulder or the softness of your laughter. Pippa’s heart races, and she realizes that it’s not just academic interest anymore. And suddenly, it hits her like a rogue wave: She likes girls. A lot.

Her brain goes haywire. She imagines herself blurting it out mid-sentence to Cara: “Did you know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell? Also, I think I might be gay.”

Pippa tries to strike up a conversation. “Hey, um, have you read the latest research on cold cases? Fascinating stuff, really. Also, your hair looks—uh, I mean, the research. Yes, the research!” You raise an eyebrow. Pippa’s inner monologue: Abort mission! Abort!

Pippa lies awake at night, analyzing every interaction. Did you smile more when she talked about unsolved mysteries? Was that a flirty laugh or just a regular laugh? Is she reading too much into this? (Spoiler: Yes, she is.)

She Googles “How to know if you’re gay” and ends up in a Wikipedia rabbit hole about sexual orientation theories. It’s like her brain is on shuffle mode.

Pippa stands in front of her closet, agonizing over what to wear. She’s dissected crime scenes in blood-spattered jeans, but this? This is a whole new level of anxiety. She settles on a slightly wrinkled blouse and wonders if it screams “I’m into girls” or just “I overslept.” Pippa creates a spreadsheet. Column A: Your quirks. Column B: Her heart rate when you smile. Column C: Probability of mutual attraction. She calculates the correlation coefficient and concludes that her feelings are statistically significant.

Pippa observes you from a distance. She notices how your eyes crinkle when you laugh, how your fingers tap rhythmically against the table during intense discussions.

She scribbles notes in her detective journal: “Subject exhibits signs of extreme adorableness. Further investigation warranted.”

Pippa rehearses confessions in her head. “Y/n, I’ve deduced that my feelings for you are not unlike a rare unsolved case. Compelling, mysterious, and keeping me up at night.” But when she opens her mouth, all that comes out is, “So, um, do you like Coffee?”

Pippa dissects every text from you. “She used an exclamation mark! Does that mean she’s excited? Or just grammatically enthusiastic?”She consults her best friend, Ravi, who suggests, “Maybe she just likes punctuation.”

Pippa’s mum catches her staring dreamily at you during dinner. She leans in and whispers, “Sweetie, if she’s your Watson, don’t let her be your Moriarty.” Pippa chokes on her peas. Her mum winks and adds, “And wear something nice tomorrow.”

It takes courage and enough chats with Cara, but pip eventually asks you out to to a true crime museum. She’d stumbled over her words, but you had accepted, because she looked so cute with her cheeks red. You both examine bloodstain patterns and discuss alibis.

You lean in and whisper “I think I’ve cracked the case. It’s called love.”

Pippa’s heart rate spikes. She’s pretty sure she’s solved the greatest mystery of all. Now all thanks to you Cara grumbles as she is forced to watch pip flirt with you during chemistry. It goes a bit like this

Pippa leans against a lab bench. “Did you know that neurotransmitters play a crucial role in attraction?You raise an eyebrow. “Really?” Pippa deadpans, “Yes. Dopamine, norepinephrine, and a dash of witty banter. It’s called the Chemistry of Crushing.”

You can hear Cara behind you, “what the hell?” She whispers.

[infodump-matchmaking]

OFFER: Forensic science. I know: fingerprinting and print matching, blood spatter analysis (not great at this one admittedly), human decomposition (my favourite), general evidence processing procedures, hair/fiber analysis.

also know a good deal about forensic psychology and specifically how court cases and insanity defense work. (in the US)

[spicymotte]

New Babylon Hellhound // Teaser 02

more from my first draft for Anton's debut story :')

(content warning for murder.. because this is a crime story)

The Museum of History and Science. It's an expensive building, looks a bit like the ancient buildings of the Romans - that's what Anton thinks to himself every time he's here - not that that happens very often.

"Hey, whoa-" A policeman steps forward as the private detective approaches the tape. "Not for civilians."

"Seriously, Benson?" Anton snorts. "You know damn well who I am, asshole." But the policeman doesn't move. He looks at the private investigator in front of him with silent disgust and licks his muzzle.

"Commissioner Viva's orders," he finally says, his lips curling into a smug grin. "No civilians." He stresses the words carefully, hoping to hit a sore spot. He doesn't.

"And what do you call this, hm?" Anton reaches into the inside pocket of his coat and pulls out his wallet, holding up his detective's licence. "If you can read, pooch, I'm not a civilian."

At the word 'pooch', the policeman's neck muscles tense, his fur bristles under his uniform and the top button of his shirt quivers with tension.

"Which one of us is the pooch, huh, hellhound?" he growls, baring his front fangs. "Some detective you are if they don't even want you in the lower circles of hell."

"At least I'm not a crossbreed," Anton replies, leaning forward so that only a few inches separate him from the deer wolf's trembling muzzle. The policeman's growl becomes deeper and throatier, a clear warning; the other wolves begin to watch the two men more closely. Anyone who messes with one of them will have the whole pack on his back.

"That's enough." A sharp voice disperses the crackling tension before it can explode. The wolves' ears twitch back to where Commissioner Viva stands at the top of the stone steps. Her mere presence is enough to bring the pack to its senses and bring a reluctant but obedient calm to her team. "Pinej, to me. You're not going to let us work in peace anway."

Reluctantly, Benson takes a step back and lets Anton slip under the tape. He quickly reaches the top of the stairs, under the stern gaze of Team Wolf.

"Why are you dragging these dogs with you?" Anton asks the Commissioner as she leads him into the museum. "We both know they're not the brightest lights. And with all that stench of blood, their noses are worthless, too." The reception hall is swarming with police officers; the rest of Team Wolf, as well as forensic experts from Police Headquarters, are present and going about their business. Securing evidence, keeping civilians out and looking important in their blue uniforms. Viva doesn't answer right away, but she sighs, knowing he's right.

The large whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling hovers over them like a bad omen - then it hits Anton's nose: The foul stench of rotting flesh and blood. The stench is still faint here, but it hints at how bad it will be in the main exhibition. He won't be allowed to smoke here, not with a commissioner as strict as Viva - so Anton doesn't even have to try. Though as he follows the woman, he fumbles in his coat for the dirty handkerchief that has been stuck in one of his pockets for weeks.

"The mayor insists on having the best noses at the crime scene - you know, for the press," Viva replies, leading him past the colourful souvenir shop and down the central corridor. Her tone is tired and tense, as if she's had a hell of an early morning. "No matter how stupid it is to send a pack of wolves to such a bloody crime scene, damn it. They can barely hold it together as it is…" The snakes in the Medusa-born's hair begin to hiss angrily and Anton takes half a step to the side, out of biting range. The heads snap at him, trying to make room for their frustration; they weren't poisonous, but a bite hurts.

"The director was killed?" he asks. "My source tells me it's not a pretty sight."

"Your source is right," Viva replies as they arrive at the large double doors outside the main exhibition. "Eleanor Marv was tortured, killed and finally hanged post mortem." Before they go in, Viva turns to Anton. Her gaze is firm, but also tinged with concern. "This is going to get ugly," she says. "She was the first pixie to work in such a high position. The press will be on this like flies."

Anton grumbles in agreement. "I read about it in the paper. The first pixie as director of the museum - there were some people who didn't like it. Lots of suspects."

"Hundreds," Viva confirms. "From all walks of life. I reckon somebody paid some poor soul from the Bottle District to make this mess. It wasn't done professionally, more sloppiness than anything else."

The investigator nods in understanding. If someone wanted to remove Mrs Marv from her position, it makes sense to get some poor sod with nothing to lose. That waters down the trail and does the dirty work for you. No wonder Viva brought him right in. This case will end up in the really dirty ditches, Anton can feel it.

"Let's go then." A policeman opens the door for the two investigators and the first breeze from the room hits them with a bitter stench. Anton immediately presses the dirty handkerchief to his face to ward off the worst. But the smell quickly passes through the fibres and settles at the back of his throat, where it remains like a disgusting fuzz.

"How long has she been there?" he asks in a hushed voice.

The room is large; it is an exhibition of the treasures found in an ancient royal tomb in South America. Golden artefacts are displayed in glass cases, with information about their origin written on small cards. The treasure is estimated to be at least 1900 years old, making it one of the oldest artefacts in the museum. It consists of hand-forged plates and cups, hair ornaments and bracelets. They are made of gold and decorated with precious stones; quite pompous and valuable. Then, the main attraction of the exhibition: a set of two daggers, with intricately carved obsidian blades, obviously intended to be wielded by the king. This naturally attracts the crowds, all wanting to see this great treasure. Bathing in the golden glow of the exhibition, which would only be on show for a limited time. But in the middle of this exciting exhibition, hanging by a heavy wire rope around her wrists and neck, was the now former director, Eleanor Marv.

[intersectingparadigms]

Forensic science - the "CSI stuff" is one of the least tested areas of the sciences there is, and deserves an overhaul. It does nothing but break peoples lives apart with false courtroom testimonies. The CSI effect means that people believe it is real when it's mostly bullshit.

Stop believing the courts every time an expert testifies. (Or at all. Most judges are cop-loving bootlickers who will gladly send you to your ruin if it speeds up their case log.)

Bite mark analysis is indisputibly fake and wrong, but courts still use it. The very first case was later proven to have had the results faked to fit, but any results after are also

Travel analysis (Where a person has been) from shoes is impossible to prove

Fingernail evidence is easy to fuck up, or confuse the courts with because many cosmetics and foods may distort findings

Hair analysis, hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as it's interpretive. It uses a shitty test that can false positive hairspray or shampoo to frame people as alcoholic or drug-using (which should not be a crime). It also is used to this day. Look up Motherisk Lab for how garbage the science can be!!! None of the lab members were ever trained. This practice is same all over the world. The science is pretty bad

Fingerprints. Both not unique to each person, and the results easy to fudge. Super interpretive and hard to prove it was them or another with a similar print. Partials used as evidence too often imo

Roadside drug tests cops give? Eaaaasy to set off that mouthwash residue, aspirin, or even chewing gum can get you a positive.

DNA is also interpretive. Sure, you may be able to match it with someone, but what markers say about that person is nothing but a maybe. This is doubled or tripled as a maybe for animals - animal DNA testing is absolutely terribly regulated

Actual science welcomes challenge. Forensics often bars it, and stands by faulty labs and science that often was just imagined up as giving results by a random guy a century ago

[starswheeledoverhead]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/01/oj-and-jeffrey-toobin-black-bogeyman-auctioneer/

I wish that ESPN would take my name off of their racist production “O.J.: Made in America”. I thought that Ezra Edelman, the black producer, would have some control over the project, but higher ups apparently decided to take Jeffrey Toobin’s racist line that blacks are “incapable of recognizing reality.”* He says that the black jurors in the criminal trial and elsewhere can’t think as well as whites, and shouldn’t receive “a pat on the head.” The late Norman Mailer, Mr. Incoherent, suggested something similar in New York magazine. This is a Eugenics line, which holds that blacks make decisions based on emotions, and not reason, which must come as a surprise to the black scientists who work at NASA.

The second part of Toobin’s pro-police, pro-prosecution theory was that the decision in the criminal case was the jury paying the LAPD back for its past brutality against blacks. (One of the jurors was white!) Bill Hodgman got sick and wasn’t able to try the case, yet there he was on “O.J.: Made In America,” voicing his theory of the case.

In the series, other prosecutors yammered on and on about theories that were disproven in court. A detective who might have planted evidence was allowed to take up time. In order to make the case that the decision in the criminal trial was based on black grievances about the LAPD, or Mark Furhman, they used a black juror whose opinion fit this marketable line instead of jurors who voted on the basis of evidence that had been tampered with. The late Philip Vanatter never explained why he carried a vial of the victim’s blood to O.J.’s estate.**

Of course, Toobin, who is Harvard trained and Harvard married and whose parents were well-off, refuses to believe that the police plant evidence, even when Mark Furhman had a history of such practices.

Those who are making money from black Bogeyman marketing, in this case O.J. is the commodity, neglect to mention that the jury in the criminal trial included a white and a Hispanic. Interviewed recently, the Hispanic juror said that he was convinced that the police had planted evidence. Are Hispanics prone to conspiracy theories or just blacks? He’s backed up by three of the top American forensic experts: Henry Lee, Michael Baden and Cyril Wecht. Wecht believes that O.J. Simpson was guilty, but believes that the police planted the blood on the sock found in O.J.’s bedroom. Other blood evidence was obviously taken from the lab because it was tainted with a chemical preservative.

One of the positive results of the trial was that it exposed the sloppy way that evidence is handled in the country’s crime labs, resulting in thousands of innocent people being sent to prison. Though much was made of O.J.’s shoes appearing at the crime scene, Michael Baden said that policemen, who refused to wear booties, made most of the prints.

Toobin’s idea of evidence is hair samples found at the crime scene, which he says belonged to O.J. Many scientists dismiss hair evidence as junk science. Moreover the hair found at the crime scene was dyed. O.J.’s barber said that O.J. didn’t dye his hair. The media neglected to mention that hair identified as Caucasian hair was also found at the crime scene and the DNA found under Nicole’s fingernails gathered there when she fought off her attacker or attackers didn’t belong to O.J. Instead of turning the blood evidence over to the lab, one of the detectives carried it around.

Toobin’s book, The Run Of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, was used in both O.J. series.”O.J.,Made in America,” and Fox’s “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” The book was used to cover up police and prosecutorial misconduct. He recently said that the idea of prosecutorial misconduct is “ridiculous.” Tell that to the thousands of black and Hispanic defendants in jail because of lying policemen and prosecutors withholding exculpatory evidence. Incidentally, one of the black jurors was a DNA scientist. She didn’t appear on either of the O.J. moneymakers because she would have upset the line promoted by ESPN and earlier Fox, that blacks played the “Race Card,” instead of being persuaded by the arguments made by Barry Scheck and the other forensic scientists. In order to stir media’s big money maker–The Racial Divide–ESPN showed the usual footage of blacks cheering the decision and whites expressing gloom. Whites in a Buffalo bar cheered the decision. O.J. played football in Buffalo.

As for the civil trial held in Santa Monica, 64% of the white jurors mostly*** believed in O.J. Simpson’s guilt before they were seated. They finally captured the coon in Las Vegas where he foolishly invaded a hotel room for the purpose of retrieving his own memorabilia. ESPN omitted the fact that the F.B.I. was informed of the sting weeks before it happened.**** The O.J. revenge sentence was delivered by Judge Jackie Glass, who had to insist that it had nothing to do with the Brentwood murders. She gave him 33 years. Some saw this as excessive. It was. It was meant to make up for the life sentence that the jury in the criminal case refused to deliver.

ESPN suggested that O.J. deserved the sentence by preceding the Las Vegas caper with scenes of a decadent O.J. partying with scantily clothed white women, a scene that has always been a big money maker for the perverse to leer at, which is why the porno movie genre called combo is a big hit even among KKK members. This porno angle has brought power to people like Tennessee’s Senator Corker, who won an election by pairing his black opponent Harold Ford, Jr. with white Playboy bunnies. Corker is on the short list to be Trump’s Vice Presidential nominee.

When the “producer” Ezra Edelman interviewed me, I made all of the points I’ve enumerated here. Moreover, James Poniewozik in The New York Times, June 20, 2016, made none of these important points in a friendly summary of the two O.J. entertainments. It was a Times reporter who agreed with Toobin that the murderer’s gloves fit O.J. He, like Toobin, didn’t witness the demonstration.

My interview wasn’t used because it would have disturbed this entertainment that was meant to comfort a white audience into believing that all of the questions about the Brentwood murders have been answered. They haven’t. 35 million people watched it. That’s why it faithfully supported the line of the prosecutors and the police, regardless of whether O.J. is guilty or innocent of the Brentwood murders.

Meanwhile Jeffrey Toobin, the black Bogeyman entrepreneur, has probably made more money pimping O.J. than all of the money made from Virginia slaves during a given year. He’s the new kind of slave trader. He wants more. Who is the next black Bogeyman that Toobin will deliver to an audience that can’t get enough of this garbage in, garbage out? It’s been announced. It’s Cinque of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Fox will make a film about Patty Hearst using Toobin’s point-of-view.*****

HOW AM I STILL GETTING OJ QUESTIONS

[kawarikisaki]

How obsessed do you think Hakuba is with forensic science? Because I feel like he would be

Oh almost definitely.

The closest we get to actually see to him actually doing that sort of investigation is him trying to analyze Kid's hair when he gets ahold of some (even if the data he got from that was kinda nonsense), but he is also the one that gives us the explanation of Luminol in the Gathering of Great Detectives (though he wasn't the one that brought the Luminol).

But I definitely think he's the type to value evidence that can be validated in someway or another over simple circumstantial evidence when possible, and he probably keeps up with all the latest advancements in forensics just to have more potential tools under his belt.

[forensicfield]

Role of Hair in Forensic Investigation

The contribution of hair analysis in crime scene investigation is very useful and reliable for the extraction of DNA and drug analysis from the last few decades. The microscopic analysis of hair helps us to differentiate between human and animal hairs.,,,

Continue reading Role of Hair in Forensic Investigation

[practically-an-x-man]

trying to plot the story so thought I'd ask my first question now XD since you know more about this kind of forensic stuff, if you were Ricki what would your next steps be? :)

Oooh, good question!

(fair warning, this got LONG)

(and again take all this with a grain of salt since I'm not a professional forensic scientist, it was just my major before I dropped out of college. If you plan on going deep into the science/technical side of things, I'd definitely suggest asking people who are active in the industry)

So I think there are two sides of this: how the case will proceed, and how Ricki will proceed. Those are two different things, since Ricki absolutely defied crime scene protocol in that first chapter and the forensic scientists will have a different protocol. But let's get into this!

The case: At this point, further law enforcement will be called to secure the scene. Extensive photos of the scene will be take both before any changes are made and after the evidence is identified and labeled, and these photos will include close-ups, mid-range shots, and shots that encompass the whole scene from various angles. They also will investigate well around the scene in order to identify any further evidence or directional clues. Because the scene is outdoors, they don't necessarily have a set size to make the active scene (it's a little simpler with indoor scenes, since they'll close off the room, floor, or whole building), so it'll depend on the size of the event and where potential evidence may be found. Sketches may also be drawn of the scene, as a second measure to identify interacts between pieces of evidence.

Anyway. Since Ricki and her partner were first on the scene, they should be the first to call it in as a crime scene, and should stay to keep watch over the crime scene until other enforcements arrive and the scene is closed. Technically, they should have avoided tampering with the scene entirely upon discovering it, since they aren't forensic scientists (the one exception would be if they were able to save the victim's life - medicine can supercede preserving the crime scene if it's time-sensitive), but since they haven't...

Ricki and her partner will both be fingerprinted (they should already have prints on file, but a new set will probably also be taken in case of temporary changes such as cuts or calluses), and will likely have DNA samples taken (so their DNA can be ruled out when other evidence from the scene is sampled).

Assuming it's known that Ricki entered the crime scene herself and came in close contact with the victim, she will absolutely have her DNA and prints taken, and her clothing may be confiscated as evidence for analysis (especially if there's visible blood, toxin, or other evidence staining her clothing). She will be questioned about her role in the scene, and will likely be reprimanded for diving right into the scene the way she did. She may also be given a physical exam - those are typically given to victims, witnesses, and potential suspects present at the scene when the crime occurred, but since Ricki entered the scene before it was closed and the age of the scene could not be fully determined when she did, they may choose to give her an exam as well.

As for the scene itself, all points of potential evidence will be identified and assigned a specific number. Photographs will be taken, using numbered plastic "tents" to label them as well as small rulers placed near (but not touching) the evidence to get an approximation of size. Small pieces of evidence, such as hairs or clothing fibers, will be given a number and a written description, and will be placed into a bindle. Liquid evidence will be swabbed and placed in a sealed container, which will also be labeled. Wet or bloodstained clothing will be wrapped in paper, taking care not to touch or wipe off the evidence any more than is necessary - liquids that are still wet are easier to identify than dried liquids, especially when it comes to blood or other biological substances. Evidence that cannot be transported, such as footprints or those claw marks at the scene, will be extensively photographed and logged, and will be left as intact as possible for the forensic scientists to examine more thoroughly at the scene. If possible, a small portion of the sample may be removed for lab testing (i.e. a bloodstained patch of carpet from a carpeted floor), but this depends on the substance.

Everyone who enters and leaves the scene will have to clock in with an assigned manager (someone whose only job is to record everyone who enters and leaves, and when). There is no food, drink, or smoking allowed on the crime scene for risk of cross-contamination, and all who are in the crime scene are to avoid coughing, sneezing, or even talking more than is necessary to avoid biological contamination. All evidence will also have custody forms, detailing who had the evidence at what time - you want as few different people handling the evidence as possible, to reduce the risk of loss or cross-contamination. Evidence will be given to lab technicians as needed for analysis, and the scene will remain sealed until all analysis is complete (it's important that more samples can be collected as needed without the risk of cross-contamination).

The body will be strictly photographed, verbally described, and labelled before it is removed from the scene, but once it is removed it will be sent to a coroner or medical examiner. Those two are NOT the same: medical examiners have a medical degree and extensive training and are the ones you WANT to have examining the body, while coroners are elected positions that require minimal to no training.

In a city like Gotham, I'd expect MEs rather than coroners. They will determine the identity of the victim, assess any damage done to the body and label all injuries, and assess the age of the body based on rigor mortis, livor mortis, forensic entomology (for example, blowflies can colonize a corpse in as little as 5-10 minutes when undisturbed!), and other means. They will almost certainly bring in a toxicologist to examine the poison on the knives. The victim's clothing, as well as the knives themselves, will be taken as evidence for analysis as well.

Particularly if it's a large crime scene or will draw a lot of attention (this would qualify), a defined area for journalists will be assigned OUTSIDE the active scene. The information released about the case will be extremely limited at first, but news personnel are still given their own area for whatever information they are allowed to gather.

It's a PROCESS, and you can see how long this got even when I'm trying to simplify it. And of course, this is the best-case scenario as well - even with these guidelines, evidence may be missed or cross-contaminated, detectives may bring food or drink into the scene, and other fallacies may happen. Hell- one already did, with Ricki jumping into the scene, and that's bound to have some repercussions both for her and for the analysis of the scene. But that brings me to the second part:

For Ricki: She has her own piece of evidence, doesn't she? Now, technically speaking she SHOULD NOT have done that, for a variety of reasons. For one, that wasn't standard collection or identification procedure, and it could make that substance harder to identify (due to cross-contamination, age, being stored improperly, etc.). And on top of that, depending on how observant the other technicians on the scene are, they might notice that the blade was tampered with after the crime was committed, which is a wrench thrown in the plans. Either Ricki needs to fess up and face the consequences of tampering with the scene, or she could be sending the other scientists on a red herring. And it's not just the knife - her footprints, her fingerprints, lost hairs, fibers from her clothing that got caught on the scene, and any accidental nudges to other pieces of evidence could also throw off the analysis.

She needs to get this chemical identified. Forensics labs are not standardized, which is a problem with the system as a whole but benefits Ricki individually here. The Gotham City Police Department likely uses a city-wise, state-wide, or federally-sponsored forensics lab, but Ricki could take her sample to a private lab and have it analyzed... well, not off the record, but at least without the police department getting involved. There may still be contact between labs, and having analysis done on the same chemical from the crime scene could still stir up some trouble for her, but she reduces that risk by going to an independent lab.

I'm honestly not sure where she should go from there. It depends on what she wants to get out of this - is she trying to solve the case, or just get a lead on who did it so she can Nightwing up and take them down? There's only so much information she can get from having that chemical analyzed, even if the analysis turns out to be successful. I'd say from here, her best bet is to try and lay low, follow the forensic examiner's lead, and get her story cleared - being reprimanded or written up is still better than having her cross-contamination misinterpreted and being seen as a potential suspect. It helps that her partner saw her interact with the scene, having that witness strengthens her alibi even if the situation is a little messy overall.

And of course... this is Gotham. It's a fictional city, and a city that's known for having superpowered crime on the regular. They may very well have differing procedures and responses to the ones we have here in the real world. Forensics as a science is constantly undergoing revisions and is subject to human error in a vast multitude of ways - it might benefit your worldbuilding to think about how analysis may differ in a science-forward, superpower-adapted world like this.

[killerandhealerqueen]

A League of a Nobleman...bruh I was waiting for this drama to come out in 2021 and I’m so glad it’s finally here. 

I have never read the original work it was based on, so I was kind of going into it blind, but I really enjoyed this drama.  It’s so up my fucking alley it’s ridiculous. 

I loved all the characters.  Zhang Ping, Lan Jue, Chen Chou, Xu Dong, Wang Yan, the fucking Emperor...I loved them all.  I love their relationships and how they grew close to each other, I loved learning about their backstories (especially Lan Jue and Zhang Ping) and how they were intertwined...just loved it.

I loved the cases too.  They were super interesting and like, some things I could figure out what they were putting down, but other things I just stared at my screen in shock like bitch.  The whole overarching case?  Absolutely fucking shook.  And I love me a good overarching case

I also loved loved loved (and this is me as a forensic science person talking) that whenever they were either investigating a body or touching evidence, they were wearing fucking gloves and masks.  Like thank you fucking jesus.  If fucking historical dramas can wear gloves and masks, there’s no excuse for modern dramas to not do the same, you feel?

As for the villains...hated hated hated the Empress Dowager.  I ain’t sad she’s dead.  She deserved it.  Like, you fucked around for too damn long and now you’re suffering the consequences.  Reap what you sow, bitch.  Reap what you sow.  And as for Shulin...I just feel sorry for him.  I really do.  I don’t condone what he did, but I do feel bad that this happened to him.  And his death was peaceful...which considering his entire life, was probably a good thing.  He just fixed his clothes, straightened his hair, and walked straight into the mist to never be seen again.  A fitting death, I suppose.

I do like the ending.  I liked that Mowen came and took charge of the Court of Judicial Rites (as he fucking should) and I thought it was super cute that Xu Dong and Lan Jue went to Yiping County to see Zhang Ping and that the drama ended like how it started: with a bowl of noodles. 

Also the OST.  Fucking slaps man.

Overall, 10/10, would definitely recommend

[plutotimeslot]

Things I learned in Forensic Science (off the top of my head)

Rigor Mortis isn't constant. It takes time for the body to stiffen up, the after a few hours it loosens up again.

The temperature of the body slowly lowers. The temp, combined with the stage of Rigor Mortis can give you an estimated time of death.

Some insects can smell dead bodies from about 10 miles (yes I know, wtf) away.

The insects that feed on the dead often have symbiotic relationships. (The bug friends help each other) (They are VERY gross)

Dead bodies decompose faster if 1. The humidity is high and/or 2. The temperature is high. This makes a jungle (or the ocean, I guess) the best place to hide a body.

If you want a foolproof process, the least amount of (the killer's) hairs you want is 30. You can find out who it is from fewer, though. 10 hairs is a realistic number to find and correctly assess.

When my FS teacher invited our local forensic pathologist to the school she gave us a presentation and in it she told us the two highest causes of death related to asphyxiation were 1. Erotic Asphyxiation (The scientific way to say choking kink) and 2. Hanging

You can find a killer though fiber. Fiber includes things like carpet, clothing, towels, cloth gloves, etc. As an example we were told about a person who had been found through the fibers of orange carpet on the deceased's body. The carpet was in the back of the killer's van and the manufacturer was able to give the police a list of all the people in the area who had used the orange carpet in their cars.

People (witnesses) have bad memories. Don't use a witness testimony as a bible. Things witnesses can get wrong include (but is not limited to): hair color, car color, face structure, clothes, street names, license plate numbers, skin tone & skin color, description of stolen items, etc.

Blood Spatter Patterns (yes spatter is the scientific term) can tell you A LOT. The weapon, the killer's height, the dominate hand used, the amount of struggle, and of course if some of the blood is the killer's than you know have DNA evidence. If you decide to become a Blood Spatter Analyst (yes, that is your job title) you will do A LOT of math. Especially geometry.

Usually when an innocent person's response to getting accused of murder is immediate anger. "How DARE you accuse ME of murder? I would NEVER!" A bit cartoonish of an example, but that is usually how it goes.

When someone has a different response you have to ask if it is because they are guilty, they have something to hide (related or unrelated to the current case), or if they are protecting someone. There is also the possibility the person's unusual response is due to their personality, a disability, or neurodivergence. It is up to a (key word) competent detective (or specialty interrogator) to find out why their response is different and if they need to push or if it's just how that person is.

Interrogation rooms are usually well lit, with the seat the person being interrogated sitting in, being close to the door, or at least closer than the interrogator. This is to give the person being interrogated a sense of ease, calm, safety, etc. Depending on the case and the people involved, the interrogation may be more interview style in the detective's office instead. This isn't the best practice, though, since in an office there are lots of distractions for both parties.

A well constructed interrogation room would be well lit, with light cream (not sterile white, that's uncomfortable) walls, and two chairs. The chairs should be fairly comfortable with a desk between them. The person getting interrogated's seat should be close to the door, but not facing away from it. They should have the constant reminder they can leave at any time. There should be some sort of desk or table between the seats, to give more distance (safety) and a place to write or rest your hands.

Both guilty and innocent individuals move their hands and lick their lips quite a lot. There are NO hard and fast rules to body language. It is also (technically) a pseudoscience so it can't really be used in most courts, however, it can be used in questioning or in determining how a individual feels about a topic or person. Someone being uncomfortable talking about a person doesn't mean that doesn't mean they killed them, it could mean they used to be in a relationship or they knew each other for a while. (Again, no hard and fast rules)

Handwriting is not my expertise, but I can add some things. The best handwriting to analyze is private writing someone wasn't expecting someone else to see like a journal or a grocery list. Handwriting, like body language has NO hard and fast rules.

Handwriting analysis is extremely complicated in English alone, but I can tell you that handwriting can give small insights into someone's personality, what they think of their family, their goals, their mental health, and their probability of being a violent criminal (no I'm not kidding)

Criminal Probability Example (Felon's Claw/Felon's Hook):

This is NOT A GUARRENTEE, it's just a weird similarity that SOME killers have. Also some random cashiers and actors???

[meret118]

In courtrooms across America, “scientific evidence” used to imprison people for heinous crimes has been increasingly discredited. Blood-spatter patterns, arson analysis, bite-mark comparisons, even some fingerprint evidence have all turned out to be unreliable.

A quarter of the 3,439 exonerations tracked by the National Registry of Exonerations involved false or misleading forensic evidence.

But these exonerations are only the tip of the iceberg, some experts say. Many more people remain incarcerated despite questions about the forensic analysis of evidence used against them. Cases are not automatically reopened when a field of forensics is questioned or even discredited. That’s true of hair analysis, which has been under scrutiny for decades: Government studies have found that in hundreds of cases, hair analysts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation exaggerated their findings in reports and court testimony. 

A new report by the exoneration registry found 129 cases in which people were falsely convicted at least partly because of flawed hair analysis and testimony. Fifteen of the defendants were sentenced to die. Exonerees lost almost 2,000 years of their lives in prison and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And there may be many more people behind bars who were convicted because of bad hair evidence.

“I am willing to speculate that—because the process of exoneration is so difficult—those exonerees could represent between two and 10 times as many wrongly convicted people,” said Simon Cole, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who is the director of the registry and an author of the study.

[thoughtlessarse]

The cases of two men with scheduled execution dates in the United States have focused attention on the reality that some death row inmates are being sentenced to die and executed despite acknowledgement by prosecutors, courts and politicians that scientific evidence proves they could not have committed the crimes for which they stand accused. Missouri has set a September 24 execution date for Marcellus Williams despite DNA evidence from the crime scene that convincingly demonstrates that he did not commit the murder. In Texas, Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed October 17 based largely on the testimony of an expert witness who cited a scientific theory on the victim’s death that has subsequently been debunked. St. Louis County Circuit Court schedules August 21 hearing for Marcellus Williams The WSWS has written on the case of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, 55, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the August 1998 murder of Felicia Ann Gayle, a former St. Louis reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home in 1998. Williams has consistently maintained his innocence. He has spent more than two decades on death row. In January, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion to vacate Williams’ conviction because newly presented DNA evidence “when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt … casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams’ conviction and sentence.” None of the forensic evidence at the crime scene, including fingerprints, footprints, hair and trace DNA on the murder weapon, has been tied to Williams. […] Texas sets October 17 execution date for Robert Roberson III On July 1, the Third Judicial District Court in Anderson County, Texas set an October 17 execution date for Robert Roberson III. If executed, Roberson would be the first person in the US executed based on now discredited scientific criteria for determining “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS). The court scheduled the execution without granting Roberson’s previously filed request for a hearing. The case concerns the January 2002 death of 2-year-old Nikki Curtis. Everything about the conviction of Nikki’s father, Roberson, for his daughter’s tragic death exposes how the death penalty is meted out against society’s most vulnerable. It demonstrates as well the willingness of authorities to dispense with science and railroad innocent individuals to execution, even when new evidence emerges and expert witnesses and some of those involved in a defendant’s arrest and prosecution demand it be halted.

read complete article

[ailelie]

tl;dr: Don't trust (most) forensic science

"Bad Evidence" from The Intercept

Hair analysts testifying on the stand had made erroneous statements in at least 33 death penalty cases, according to the agency. “Nine of these defendants have already been executed and five died of other causes while on death row.”

[...]

Much of the recent upheaval in the forensics world can be traced back to a landmark study released by the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. Titled “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward,” the report questioned the scientific basis for virtually every forensic discipline used to convict people and send them to prison. With the exception of DNA analysis, it found, “no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source.”

[...]

The NAS report, and an even more stinging critique of pattern-matching practices released by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in 2016, were particularly critical of bite marks. The “available scientific evidence strongly suggests that examiners cannot consistently agree on whether an injury is a human bite mark and cannot identify the source of [a] bite mark with reasonable accuracy,” reads the PCAST report — a problem the group did not think could be rectified. “PCAST considers the prospects of developing bite-mark analysis into a scientifically valid method to be low. We advise against devoting significant resources to such efforts.”

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward

By using the term “underresourced,” the committee means to imply all of its dimensions. Existing data suggest that forensic laboratories are underresourced and understaffed, which contributes to a backlog in cases and likely makes it difficult for laboratories to do as much as they could to inform investigations, provide strong evidence for prosecutions, and avoid errors that could lead to imperfect justice. But underresourced also means that the tools of forensic science are not as strong as they could be. The knowledge base that underpins analysis and the interpretation of evidence—which enable the forensic science disciplines to excel at informing investigations, providing strong evidence for prosecutions, and avoiding errors that could lead to imperfect judgment—is incomplete in important ways.

[...]

Although DNA laboratories are expected to conduct their examinations under stringent quality controlled environments, errors do occasionally occur. They usually involve situations in which interpretational ambiguities occur or in which samples were inappropriately processed and/or contaminated in the laboratory. Errors also can occur when there are limited amounts of DNA, which limits the amount of test information and increases the chance of misinterpretation. Casework reviews of mtDNA analysis suggest a wide range in the quality of testing results that include contamination, inexperience in interpreting mixtures, and differences in how a test is conducted.

[...]

Uniqueness and persistence are necessary conditions for friction ridge identification to be feasible, but those conditions do not imply that anyone can reliably discern whether or not two friction ridge impressions were made by the same person. Uniqueness does not guarantee that prints from two different people are always sufficiently different that they cannot be confused, or that two impressions made by the same finger will also be sufficiently similar to be discerned as coming from the same source. The impression left by a given finger will differ every time, because of inevitable variations in pressure, which change the degree of contact between each part of the ridge structure and the impression medium. None of these variabilities—of features across a population of fingers or of repeated impressions left by the same finger—has been characterized, quantified, or compared.

"How did we fall for the junk science of forensics?" from The Spectator

I believed in the polygraph test, in an unthinking way, right up until last week when I read a new book by M. Chris Fabricant, Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System, which carefully and unarguably explains that almost every forensic science is unreliable, and most are entirely bogus. It’s not just polygraphs, says Fabricant, but the whole damn shooting match: arson investigation, hair microscopy, bullet lead analysis, voice spectrometry, hand-writing and bloodstain spatter analysis. ‘The list of discredited forensic techniques is considerable,’ writes Fabricant.

"We Need To Get Junk Science Out of Courtrooms" from Current Affairs

Fabricant:  

I defined junk science in the book as subjective speculation masquerading as scientific evidence. And what I mean by that is that there is no scientific or empirical basis for the opinion. It’s based largely on training and experience and hasn’t been demonstrated to be valid and reliable through scientific research done through the scientific method and published in peer-reviewed journals, the way that mainstream typical science works.

In forensics, what we often have as compared to mainstream science are forensic techniques and knowledge generated by law enforcement. And typically, it’s done in an ad hoc basis. It will become useful in a particular case or a particular crime. Bite mark evidence is an example that I use in the book to demonstrate how a particular form of junk science gets introduced into the legal system. But it really only takes one case—one precedent-establishing case—or one judge to allow in one technique, and it’s very, very hard to exclude that evidence forever thereafter, no matter how junky it was to begin with.

[...]

Yes, it’s a fundamental problem with forensics. A lot of it goes back to what we were talking about earlier in terms of the difference between mainstream science and forensic sciences. One of the other examples that I point to in the book is arson investigation. Arson investigation, like bite mark evidence, hair microscopy, blood spatter evidence, firearms analysis—many of these techniques really operate in essentially a guild-like structure. The masters of the trade have the received wisdom that is passed down from mentor to mentee, generation from generation. A lot of it is folklore. What I mean is that it sounds science-y, and there are big textbooks, and there are leading practitioners of the field who become very high flying and high paid consultants. But it’s just never been tested.

[...]

One of the real problems with fingerprints and forensics, generally, is that there aren’t any standards nationally for, well, anything in particular—even as a threshold issue as to how much information you need in a latent fingerprint to make a so-called match. We know, today, that fingerprints have not been demonstrated as a matter of science to be unique. I think they probably are. I’m not arguing that they aren’t. But we don’t know this as a fact. What’s more important in forensics is that we don’t know how similar two fingerprints are. When you’re talking about latent fingerprints, these are smudges at crime scenes. If we don’t have any standards for how much information in that smudge you need, then you get a real problem with creating a potential wrongful conviction, a false positive, because some fingerprint experts will be willing to make a match based on very little information. What we get in that type of situation is the influence of cognitive bias on that conclusion. All forensics have a certain amount of subjectivity, some much more than others. Fingerprints are no different in that there aren’t any measurements being taken here to say that we need to have within a measurement of uncertainty, that when we declare a match that we know exactly what that means as a measurement, that this came within our one-millimeter degree of confidence in this measurement on this loop and this loop on this fingerprint. We don’t do that; it’s eyeballed.