Bulletin: Lonnie Franklin Jr. California; Ballistics; Prosecution's bullet matching techniques come under fire by 'grim reaper' defence witness. "The expert said his analysis confirmed that the alleged killer's only verified survivor Enietra Washington had been shot with the same .25 caliber handgun as Wright. But on Tuesday, defense witness David Lamagna said he believed that law enforcement's methods are unreliable. Examiners relied on two-dimensional comparison microscopes to analyze the unique tool marks left on bullets. But Lamagna, a forensic scientist and engineer, said he only trusts advanced technologies like 3-D mapping or electron microscopes that allow examiners to look at objects in finer detail. Amster asked Lamagna if he believed the method used by law enforcement creates conclusions that leave room for doubt. "Yes. I believe it's mostly subjective in nature at this point," Lamagna said. He noted that there had not been enough studies done to test the reliability of the tool-mark analysis and said that a forensic ballistics organization, the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners, has "no mathematical standards" for deciding a match Law enforcement lacks specific protocols, he added. Lamagna said he had traveled to different police departments around the nation and seen varied standards. "I see different examiners doing their own thing."

 "In the trial of the accused Grim Sleeper serial killer, the prosecution has repeatedly pointed jurors to evidence matching bullets in seven victims with the same .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. But as the case edges closer to a conclusion after beginning more than two months ago, defendant Lonnie Franklin Jr.'s attorney Seymour Amster has cast doubt on the DNA evidence used to charge his client as well as firearm examiners' methods for matching bullets. County prosecutors called several firearms experts to the stand in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy's courtroom before resting their case in March. LAPD firearms expert Daniel Rubin testified that examiners can match bullets to a gun by analyzing tool marks on a bullet after a round is fired.   Because the machine tools used to manufacture firearms leave unique marks on the barrel, experts can determine if bullets were fired from the same gun, the jury has heard. Rubin told jurors that he matched bullets found in victims Debra Jackson, Henrietta Wright, Barbara Ware, Bernita Sparks, Mary Lowe and Alicia Alexander to the same semiautomatic handgun.  The expert said his analysis confirmed that the alleged killer's only verified survivor Enietra Washington had been shot with the same .25 caliber handgun as Wright. But on Tuesday, defense witness David Lamagna said he believed that law enforcement's methods are unreliable. Examiners relied on two-dimensional comparison microscopes to analyze the unique tool marks left on bullets. But Lamagna, a forensic scientist and engineer, said he only trusts advanced technologies like 3-D mapping or electron microscopes that allow examiners to look at objects in finer detail. Amster asked Lamagna if he believed the method used by law enforcement creates conclusions that leave room for doubt. "Yes. I believe it's mostly subjective in nature at this point," Lamagna said.  He noted that there had not been enough studies done to test the reliability of the tool-mark analysis and said that a forensic ballistics organization, the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners, has "no mathematical standards" for deciding a match  Law enforcement lacks specific protocols, he added.  Lamagna said he had traveled to different police departments around the nation and seen varied standards. "I see different examiners doing their own thing," Lamagna testified. Lamagna is the owner of American Forensic Technologies, which according to his LinkedIn page provides "forensic review and analysis of evidence in civil and criminal cases" as well as field investigations.  Franklin is accused of killing vulnerable young black women over a period that began in the mid-1980s. His victims were often sex workers, and prosecutors say he prowled the streets during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic — killing seven women during a period that ended in 1988.  Another four murders between 2002 until 2007 have been linked to the Grim Sleeper, who earned the name because of a possible fallow period during the late 1980s and 1990s — though it's believed that the alleged serial killer may have killed many more women." (Thanks to CSIDDS (Forensics in Focus) for bringing this story to our attention.)
 https://csidds.com/2016/04/29/back-and-forth-in-court-about-raising-technical-instrumentation-ballistic-standards/
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/04/26/grim-sleeper-defense-picks-holes-in-bullet-analysis.htm