POST: "Shocking. How long it took to debunk the FBI's use of hair - Brandon Garrett," by Mike Bowers, on his Blog 'Forensics in Focus: CSIDDS' published on August 10, 2016.
GIST: "Its a long read, but this journal article (in 'Litigation' a publication of of the American Bar Association) by Professor Brandon Garrett runs the true story about the decades of effort it took to get rid of the debunked (to most of us) use of innocent people’s hair to falsely convict them of crimes. The piece is a tribute to those who advocate the sustainable use of “science” in criminal courts. Nothing short of a national system of command and control of forensic testimony is needed." (Brandon Garrett is the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law at the university of Virginia school of law;)
The entire post can be found at:
Bad Hair- Garrett
https://csidds.com/2016/08/10/how-long-it-took-to-debunk-the-fbis-use-of-hair-brandon-garrett/
"The entire article "Bad Hair: The legal response to mass forensic errors," by Professor Brandon Garrett, published in 'Litigation', Volume 42, Number 4, Summer 2016, by the American Bar Association, can be found at the link below: "These systemic problems have increasingly confronted lawyers, judges, and policymakers with the question: What should be done when an entire forensic crime laboratory breaks down? Forensic science evidence—from DNA to fingerprints, ballistics, pathology, and chemical assays—is used in hundreds of thousands of criminal investigations each year. There are over 400 public crime labs in the United States, as well as private labs. Without forensics, serious crimes would go unsolved. With modern forensics, innocent people have had their names cleared. And yet, with alarming frequency, groups of forensic analysts or even entire crime labs have had their work come under scrutiny due to flawed or even fraudulent work. The response has some times been that this was due to the work of a “bad apple,” and sometimes people did commit terrible mistakes or they falsified evidence. But the reason so many entire crime labs around the country have been audited or even shut down is that sound systems were not in place to prevent forensic errors and even fraud. Despite lessons learned from countless wrongful convictions and lab scandals, those systems still require an overhaul."
https://csidds.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/bad-hair-garrett.pdf
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts.
The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to:
hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
