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July 31st, 2008 Filed Under Legal News
I knew that once Avvo for lawyers came, it was only a matter of time before the success of this site would spread to every other industry…then came ratemycop.com. Not really a practical extension of the idea but still the same premise. I tend to agree with Injustice in Seattle, that ratemycop has little, if no real value. It allows anonymous postings and was gaining ground as a place to call out officers that were invading the province of the thin blue line. But today. Well today we have www.therobingroom.com. Now, for all I know this site has been around for ages and I am late to the party. But I am interested to see whether our judiciary takes the same position on this site as they did on Avvo.
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And Now a Word From Armentano
July 29th, 2008 Filed Under Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Reform
The Killing of Rachel Hoffman and the Tragedy That Is Pot Prohibition.
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History Lessons
July 29th, 2008 Filed Under Off Topic
Via the Seattle Weekly’s Dan Ward.
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Referencing a Reference
July 29th, 2008 Filed Under Assault, Bicycling Under the Influence
Didn’t I just say in a post about drinking and bicycling, don’t be THAT guy? Well, we had to show up Portland, right? I hope you are happy Seattle. Well, as with most cases, there are two very different versions of the story.
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The Future of Privacy
July 28th, 2008 Filed Under Privacy Concerns
Something to consider is how much of our privacy we willfully hand over in the name of consumerism. It is a strange fact that becomes part of my business, as we subpoena records from phone and internet companies. It is also what we see when the Prosecutor hands over a persons private data, mined from phone calls and other sources. I think every criminal defense attorney cringes when we hear the phrase, “if your not guilty, you have nothing to be afraid of.” It is a phrase that was thrown around quite a bit, in Germany, in the 1940’s. This topic is relevant to us as attorneys because we seem to be doing this in lock step with our other civil liberties, in the name of security.
“This is an automated message. You have the right to remain silent. Please note anything you said on the internet in the past 35 years can and will be used against you.”
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The Pendulum Swings
July 25th, 2008 Filed Under Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Reform
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Thumb on the Scale
July 25th, 2008 Filed Under DNA, Foresnics
Guest post from Dan E Krane:
What makes scientific evidence so powerful in court is very simple: it’s supposed to be scientific. That means that it is supposed to be objective and completely independent of the subject of an investigation (a suspect or a defendant). It is therefore absolutely shocking that DNA testing laboratories routinely put themselves in a situation where specific information about a subject’s DNA profile might influence their interpretation of an evidence sample.
Last December, eleven prominent experts from around the US and even Scotland met in Washington, DC to discuss the problem of examiner bias/context effect in DNA profiling. Given the breadth of expertise and roles of these experts it surprised many of us that we were able to not only agree about the magnitude and nature of the problem, but also to a solution. The result was the generation of a position paper that has been published in this month’s Journal of Forensic Sciences (http://www.bioforensics.com/articles/sequential_unmasking.html).
Our bold and surprisingly controversial recommendation is the essence of simplicity: analysts should interpret evidence samples, at least initially, without any knowledge of the DNA profile of any suspects being investigated. Arguments to the contrary are ludicrous and are generally equivalent to a student demanding to see an answer key prior to taking an exam because that makes it so much easier for them to come up with the right solutions. Information about a suspect’s DNA profile does help with the interpretation of evidence samples in the resolution of surprisingly common ambiguities that lend themselves to a variety of alternative interpretations. But, using a defendant’s profile in that way is unequivocally wrong and invariably works to their disadvantage at the same time that it seriously undermines the scientific nature of the test.
Please help us spread the word that DNA profiles should always be interpreted objectively. More information about the authors of this position paper and the opportunities for subjective interpretation of DNA evidence is available at the Forensic Bioinformatics web site (www.bioforensics.com). It will also be a topic for discussion during our annual meeting coming up in just a few more weeks.
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Upcoming Conference for Forensic Bioinformatics
July 24th, 2008 Filed Under Conference, Crime Lab, DNA
Here is the plug: Forensic Bioinformatics is holding its expert forum on the science of DNA profiling on August 15 through 17. This will be our seventh annual meeting in Dayton and I think you will agree that the program is one of our best ever.We have always been fortunate in being able to get prominent experts to share their insights and learn from each other at this meeting and this year is not an exception. Notable speakers for this year’s forum include: Simon Ford; Christine Funk; Keith Inman; Roger Koppl; Larry Mueller; Gabe Oberfield; D. Michael Risinger; Tania Simoncelli; and Bill Thompson.Last year’s introductory parallel session run by Christine Funk on the first day of the forum was so successful that we have decided to build the whole first day of this year’s meeting (Friday, August 15) around it. This set of presentations for less experienced attorneys with cameo appearances from world-renowned experts is intended to bring relative new-comers to the field up to speed on the technical aspects of DNA profiling so they can appreciate the cutting edge discussions about DNA databases and statistical issues associated with DNA test results on the days that follow.This year we are again offering the opportunity to generate your own DNA profile (from DNA extraction to statistical interpretation) during the day of Thursday, August 14. Keith Inman from Forensic Analytical will be running this special workshop using Wright State University facilities for the first ten conference attendees who express an interest in this $200 course.Early registration ($295) for this year’s expert forum runs through August 1 and represents a $130 savings over the full registration cost. Groups of four or more can obtain a 20% discount and a limited number of scholarships are still available upon request.As always, much more information about the speakers, their talks and the meeting in general (including registration forms and hotel information) are available at the Forensic Bioinformatics web site (www.bioforensics.com).
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DNA & Crime Labs Make the News (again).
July 21st, 2008 Filed Under Crime Lab, Legal News
Full article by Jason Felch and Maura Dolan can be read in the Los Angeles Times here.
Prosecutors and crime labs across the country routinely use numbers that exaggerate the significance of DNA matches in “cold hit” cases, in which a suspect is identified through a database search.Jurors are often told that the odds of a coincidental match are hundreds of thousands of times more remote than they actually are, according to a review of scientific literature and interviews with leading authorities in the field.Two national scientific committees, including the FBI’s DNA advisory board, have recommended portraying the odds more conservatively. But interviews with expert witnesses and DNA analysts from crime labs across the country show that few if any have adopted that approach.The FBI lab, which oversees the nation’s offender databases, has disregarded the recommendation of its own advisory board, bureau officials acknowledged. So far, the courts have ruled in law enforcement’s favor on this issue.As a result, some experts fear, a technology best known for freeing the innocent could be causing its own miscarriages of justice.”It is only a matter of time until someone is wrongfully convicted because of this,” said Keith Devlin, a Stanford mathematician who has studied the problem.DNA profiles are widely perceived as a unique genetic fingerprint. In fact, they are slivers of the human genome — up to 13 markers that contain about a millionth of the information on all the chromosomes. Relatives often share many markers, and even unrelated people on average share two or three.So DNA “matches” by themselves can never definitively link someone to a crime.The best science can do is to estimate the likelihood that a match has occurred by sheer chance. These statistics are easily distorted or misunderstood by lawyers, judges, juries and even expert witnesses.
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Update: Case Closed
July 18th, 2008 Filed Under Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Reform
Although it is not clear why the case is closed. You can read the full article from the PI here. Exerpt from Moises Mendoza’s article:
Police officers returned a laptop and patient records they seized from a University District medical marijuana cooperative, but for now they’re holding on to 12 ounces of marijuana and several bongs confiscated during their Tuesday evening search. Martin Martinez, who heads the Life Vine cooperative at 1406 N.E. 50th St. near University Way Northeast, said he and his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, picked up the roughly 500 records from the Police Department Thursday. But it’s not clear if they will get the marijuana back, which advocates say is for use by seriously ill patients.
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