Subscribe in a ReaderDNA Science
August 18th, 2009 Filed Under Crime Lab, DNA
Once you bring in the CSI guys it isn’t about morals or right and wrong. Once you have those cool lights, microscopes, and q-tip swabs you follow the evidence to were it leads you. It is just science. Right? I mean nobody can fake that kind of evidence, right?
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The Cell Phone Forensics Game
September 12th, 2008 Filed Under Apple, Crime Lab, Foresnics
More on how the iPhone keeps track of everything you do.
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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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