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In The News

2016-01-06 | Can Mites Be Used to Determine Post-Mortem Interval Months After a Death?
But mites that hitch a ride to the decomposing remains might be an overlooked indicator to pin down postmortem interval after months or even years, according to a study in the Journal of Medical Entomology today. “Development of arthropods, particularly blow flies, associated with decomposing human remains currently represents one of the more reliable methods for estimating the… time of death of an individual,” write the researchers. “Little attention has been paid to the utility of mites despite the fact that they may represent the first and/or final ecological seres (waves) association with carrion decomposition due to the success associated with blow fly biology in (time of death) estimation.”

2016-01-05 | DC forensics lab to resume DNA testing in January
Nine months after DNA testing was suspended at the District's independent crime lab, officials said evidence analysis will resume in January following a training and management overhaul. An audit last April found serious flaws in the way the testing was conducted and Jenifer Smith, the new director of the Department of Forensic Sciences, said she found a lab in turmoil from significant mismanagement.

2015-12-22 | Initial Eyewitness Confidence in IDs Could Be Crucial in Determining Accuracy
“A blanket indictment of the reliability of eyewitness expressions of confidence is wrong,” said Wixted. “It’s a huge mistake our legal system is making. At the time that they’re first making an ID, eyewitnesses can give us reliable information about their accuracy.”

2015-12-22 | Federal complaints allege marijuana misreporting by State Police crime lab
At least three attorneys filed federal complaints Tuesday against the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division for allegations of serious negligence or misconduct, and to contest grant money the crime labs received this year. However, officials with both the MSP and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office told FOX 17 their agencies are not conducting investigations into these allegations.

2015-12-14 | Forensic Scientists Study Decomposition for Insights Into Post-Mortem Interval
“We feel there is great promise that our findings could be used by forensic scientists,” said Jessica Metcalf, a lead researcher from both schools. “We view it as a potential method that could be used with other lines of evidence by investigators attempting to solve suspicious crimes.”

2015-12-12 | Lives in Balance, Texas Leads Scrutiny of Bite-Mark Forensics
In 1987, he was sentenced to life on murder charges after a dental expert testified that it was virtually certain that his teeth had caused marks on an arm of the victim, a drug dealer who was stabbed to death. This same expert has now repudiated his testimony as unfounded. Mr. Chaney is one of more than a dozen people around the country who have been released or exonerated in cases involving bite-mark testimony that was later debunked.

2015-12-08 | DOJ's New Accreditation Policies to Advance Forensic Science
New Accreditation Policies to Advance Forensic Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates announced today that the Justice Department will, within the next five years, require department-run forensic labs to obtain and maintain accreditation and require all department prosecutors to use accredited labs to process forensic evidence when practicable. Additionally, the department has decided to use its grant funding mechanisms to encourage other labs around the country to pursue accreditation.

2015-12-07 | Defense Attorneys Demand Closer Look at Software Used to Detect Crime-Scene DNA
Defense attorneys have tried but failed to get access to the source code of the program, called TrueAllele. They say they can’t determine whether the software is erroneously linking their clients to crimes if they are unable to review the instructions the program gives the computer. “TrueAllele is being used on the most dangerous, least information-rich samples you encounter, and typically in the most important cases,” said Dan E. Krane, a biology professor at Wright State University and defense expert who has opposed use of the program. “And I don’t know how it arrives at its answers.”

2015-12-07 | Digital forensics standards must be improved
The police management of digital forensics is “disparate” and improvements must be made in firearms classification, crime scene investigation and laboratory processes, according to the Forensic Science Regulator. In her annual report Dr Gillian Tulley was critical that very little digital forensics work – the recovery and investigation of material found in digital devices – is accredited to international standards by the UK Accreditation Service and she committed to obtaining accreditation for all providers by 2017. Dr Tulley believes without proper scrutiny the risk of errors is significant.

2015-12-07 | Organ Matter on Bullets Could Pinpoint Fatal Shot
Amid the chaos of a gun homicide involving multiple shots and multiple shooters, reconstructing exactly which shots proved fatal can prove a daunting case. But using mass spectrometry on the trace proteins on the bullet can determine what organs they passed through with startling new accuracy, according to a study in the Journal of Proteome Research. The mass spectrometry method was used on bullets fired through pig parts – and the scientists were able to identify the correct organ more than 99 percent of the time, they said.