Month September 2018

The Wisconsin State Department of Justice received a report from the National Forensic Science Technology Center at Florida International University examining the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. The issues identified include employee turnover that disrupts lab timeliness in testing and incidences… Continue Reading →

DNA Transfer

Marina Medvin published a new article Thursday titled “Framed By Your Own Cells: How DNA Evidence Imprisons The Innocent.” Medvin argues that new technologies that allow DNA to be analyzed from increasingly small samples present a risk of error due… Continue Reading →

Motherisk Lab in Toronto

Rachel Mendleson of the Toronto Star published an investigative article last week detailing how the Motherisk scandal is still affecting the life of a mother whose child was wrongfully removed from their home. In 2015, the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory… Continue Reading →

Exoneration in Arkansas

On Wednesday, John Brown was released from prison in Arkansas after his convictions were overturned by a Federal District Court in Arkansas last month. Brown had been convicted of aggravated robbery, rape, and murder in 1988. He had served twenty-eight… Continue Reading →

Revisiting Breath Test Evidence in Mass.

A Massachusetts judge has accepted an agreement, signed by all eleven of the state’s District Attorneys, to exclude breath test machine evidence obtained between 2011 and 2017 in tens of thousands of DUI cases. These convictions have been called into… Continue Reading →

DUI Reversal

The Texas 14th Court of Appeals recently granted relief in a DWI case for a Brady claim based on mistakes by an analyst in the Houston Forensic Science Center in the handling of a blood sample. At the trial, an… Continue Reading →

Ohio Ruling on Bitemark Evidence

Earlier this week, the Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals upheld a trial court judgment preventing Douglas Prade from getting a new trial to contest his conviction for the murder of his ex-wife in 1997. Prade contended that scientific advances… Continue Reading →

Blood Spatter Evidence in Bryan Case

Recent testimony from an evidentiary hearing in the Joe Bryan case in Texas has centered on blood spatter interpretation. Bryan was a school principal who has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1985 murder of his wife. His… Continue Reading →

Amicus Brief in McPhaul

A group submitted an amicus brief to the North Carolina Supreme Court that argues for stronger examination of the reliable application of fingerprint and other expert evidence.  I authored the brief with remarkable assistance of a group of twenty-six leading… Continue Reading →

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