Forensic science: Equated to the "wild west" by blogger, lawyer Justin J. McShane (The truth about forensic science);

POST: "Some random thoughts on forensic science," by Justin J. McShane, published on "The truth about forensic science."

GIST: "While at the ACS (American Chemical Society) press con­fer­ence last week, I was asked by an inter­na­tional reporter my thoughts on the cur­rent state of affairs in Foren­sic Sci­ence by a Brazil­ian sci­ence reporter. I wanted to share my answers with you all and see if there are dif­fer­ent points of view that may be out there. So what do you think? Q: How can we best assess the role of foren­sic sci­ence in the court­room nowadays? A: Right now, the best anal­ogy that can be used to explain the sci­en­tific state of affairs in foren­sic sci­ence is that of the Wild Wild West. There is no over­sight. It’s not unlike the old quick draw con­tests. Each lab­o­ra­tory is free to set up what­ever pro­to­cols it wants with no need to prove the valid­ity in its test­ing before it is being used. It is an excit­ing time to be involved in foren­sic sci­ence and in the Inno­cence Project as we all believe that we are start­ing to see the tam­ing of the Wild Wild West. We hope that law and order will be brought to the crime lab­o­ra­to­ries where only val­i­dated foren­sic sci­ence makes its way into the courtroom."

The entire post can be found at:

http://www.thetruthaboutforensicscience.com/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring these issues. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Bulletin: Chavis Carter; Arkansas; Police say he used a stolen gun to kill himself; Gun and expended shell sent to state crime lab.

STORY: "Chavis used stolen gun to kill himself according to police," by Mia Meadows, published on Gather.com on August 4, 2012.

GIST: "According to new information, the gun Chavis was reportedly killed with was a stolen, .380 cobra semi-automatic. The gun was reported stolen by a Jonesboro resident. That is a good-size gun to miss on a pat-down, twice. It is also a fairly heavy gun for a person to use with their non-dominant hand while handcuffed. Was Chavis worried about the ramifications of possessing a stolen weapon? Jonesboro police say they recovered the gun and the expended shell in the backseat. Both items were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab. While that is probably standard protocol, it would have been a better idea to send it to a lab not directly associated with the state. Tensions are already running high, and it will be difficult for people to believe anything that comes out of an Arkansas lab. The FBI's involvement will hopefully insure a thorough, unbiased investigation is conducted. Chavis Carter's family deserves the truth, no matter how ugly it is."

The entire story can be found at:

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981515959

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Pamela Jacobazzi: Chicago Sun-Times A wise warning about 'shaken baby syndrome." "Disproving proven theories that led to injustice." Must Read.

EDITORIAL: "Disproving proven theories that led to injustice: Too often, cutting-edge scientific theories send people to prison only to turn out to have more holes than Swiss cheese," published by the Chicago Sun-Times on September 1, 2012.

GIST: "There was the medical theory — later discredited — that helped land about 30 adults from Bakersfield, Calif., in prison for sexually abusing children in the 1990s. There were the arson theories that helped send Cameron Todd Willingham to a Texas execution chamber in 2004, only to be rejected later by other experts relying on advances in fire science. There was the theory of identifiable unique shoe-wear patterns that helped send at least eight men to prison for life in the United States and Canada in the 1980s before scientists concluded the whole idea was fiction. So when a case involving the theory of “shaken-baby syndrome” returns to the DuPage County courthouse this fall, the theory should be put under a microscope. Only proof that puts all doubt to rest will suffice.........DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin has said prosecutors are prepared to defend the conviction at a new evidentiary hearing scheduled for November. At the hearing, new science that wasn’t available at the time of trial will be presented, as well as pediatric records that the defense will argue show the child’s symptoms could have been caused by disease. “The general consensus is that the medical evidence used at her trial is no longer valid,” said Bill Clutter, of the Illinois Innocence Project, which is working on behalf of Jacobazzi. And DuPage County lawyer Terry Ekl, who defended a similar shaken-baby case in DuPage County, said authorities should be wary of basing a case largely on shaken-baby syndrome: “Everybody wants to see someone be convicted when a baby dies.” But, he said, “I think this is an area where there are innocent people in jail who have been convicted as a result of flawed theories.” .........The medical evidence in this case must be weighed carefully. If any doubt remains, this conviction must be overturned."

The entire editorial can be found at:

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/14853620-474/editorial-disproving-proven-theories-that-led-to-injustice.html

See also: "Ever Meek, ever malleable," an op-ed column by Frank Bruni, published in the New York Times on September 2, 2012. This insightful column does not contain the word "forensic," does not mention "shaken baby syndrome," and in no ways deals with pathology - but it is of considerable grist to this Blog because Bruni offers a very convincing explanation as to why people swallow holus-bolus unscientific theories such as 'shaken baby syndrome' - and tend to buy into the opinions of so-called authorities like Charles Smith, instead of using their minds and thinking twice. HL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/bruni-gullibility-in-politics-and-in-film.html?_r=3

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Bulletin: Khalid Chishti; Imam accused of tampering with evidence linked to Christian girl accused of vandalizing a Qur'an claims fabrication.

STORY:" Imam denies tampering with evidence in Pakistan Blasphemy case," published by CTV News on September 2, 2012.

GIST: "Police in Pakistan have arrested a Muslim cleric who allegedly tampered with evidence linked to a Christian girl accused of vandalizing a Qur’an, in a case that has shone a spotlight on the country’s blasphemy laws. The case of the Christian girl accused of burning pages of the Muslim holy book has ignited furor both in Pakistan and abroad, partly because of her age but also because of questions about her mental capacity. The case has also triggered the exodus of hundreds of Christians from the girl’s neighbourhood, as residents flee fearing possible retribution by their Muslim neighours. The cleric, Khalid Chishti, was apprehended Saturday for allegedly planting pages of a Qur’an in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash. The bag belonged to the Christian girl and was later submitted as evidence, said investigating officer Munir Jaffery. The arrest comes after a member of the mosque where the cleric works came forward Saturday and said the imam had placed the pages of the Quran in the bag. According to police, the man claimed cleric Chishti said the evidence was a way to get rid of Christians. The new testimony surfaced more than two weeks after the Christian girl was arrested, raising questions about why the man did not come forward sooner with the critical information. The girl was accused of desecrating the Qur’an, a serious offence that can result in a sentence of life in prison."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/imam-denies-tampering-with-evidence-in-pakistan-blasphemy-case-1.939743

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Ed Graf: Texas; New findings based on modern arson science could exonerate him of murdering his 2 young stepsons in 1988 fire. Waco Tribune.

STORY: "Findings could exonerate man convicted of murdering stepsons in 1988 Hewitt fire," by reporter Cindy V. Culp, published in the Waco Tribune on August 15, 2102.

GIST "One of the nation’s leading fire experts has concluded that a 1986 blaze that claimed the lives of two local boys could not have been started intentionally with an accelerant fluid — a finding that directly contradicts the murder case prosecutors built against the boys’ stepfather, Ed Graf. Graf, 60, was convicted in 1988 of murdering the boys in a shed behind their Hewitt home and is serving a life sentence in a Gatesville lockup. But scientist Douglas J. Carpenter wrote in a recently released report that the amount of carbon monoxide inhaled by the boys, as measured through blood tests conducted at autopsy, can be explained only by an accidental fire. Conditions inside the backyard storage shed where the fire occurred likely would have knocked the boys unconscious within one minute and been fatal within two minutes, he estimated. “A fire started from an accelerant in an open area of the shed would have quickly generated intense heat and flames and would have killed the victims before they could have breathed enough carbon monoxide” to achieve the blood test results, Carpenter wrote. That finding is the most striking assertion made by four experts commissioned by Waco attorney Walter M. Reaves Jr., who is representing Graf, as part of a court filing Monday. The filing, known as a writ of habeas corpus, is aimed at getting Graf out of prison. But the reports go much further in questioning the evidence used against Graf at his 1988 trial. The experts detail how officials at the time relied on fire characteristics known as “arson indicators” that since have been proved unreliable by research. The Texas Forensic Science Commission last year condemned such indicators as junk science, triggering a statewide review of arson cases."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/166215316.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Bulletin: Graham Stafford: Australia. He was freed after years in prison as a result of new forensic evidence; New charges likely to be laid?

STORY: "After the release of Graham Stafford, police close in on new suspect in the murder of Ipswich girl Leanne Holland: (Leanne Holland was murdered in 1991. Graham Stafford's conviction was quashed in 2009 after he served 15 years in prison).

GIST: "The authorities have confirmed investigations have come to a close and were likely to result in new charges being laid for the brutal killing of the 13-year-old Goodna, Ipswich, schoolgirl in 1991. Detectives on the original case took just three days from her disappearance to lock up Graham Stafford, the then boyfriend of Leanne's older sister. Mr Stafford was found guilty but cleared in December 2009. Investigations by then private investigator Graeme Crowley and The Sunday Mail produced crucial evidence for a third Court of Appeal hearing which resulted in the conviction being quashed." (The new evidence suggested that a maggot found by police on Mr. Stafford's boot was not the same genus as those found on Leanne's body - and that this error may have effected the reliability of the determined time of death. Moreover, a tire expert had since cast doubt on the reliability of a police officer's evidence that tire tracks found at the scene matched those of Mr. Stafford's car. HL).

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/new-charges-to-come-over-murder-of-ipswich-girl-leanne-holland/story-e6freon6-1226463072852

For background go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Stafford

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.

Amina Chaudhary; Ontario; Smith case; Released to halfway house; Protests innocence 30 years later; Seeks law preserving evidence; CP.

STORY: "Woman convicted of killing boy granted day parole in Hamilton," published by CP on August 30, 2012.

GIST: An Ontario woman who started a family with another inmate while serving a life sentence for killing an eight-year-old boy will get a second chance at building a life outside prison. Amina Chaudhary, 51, gasped and shook with relief Wednesday when members of the Parole Board of Canada handed down their decision to release her to a halfway house in Hamilton.........In a recent twist, the case spawned a campaign for the preservation of evidence after photo exhibits that Chaudhary's supporters believe might help prove her innocence seemed to vanish. "The best recourse she had for vindication has pretty much been taken away," said Alan Young, a lawyer and professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School. The school's chapter of the Innocence Project took Chaudhary as its first case and has since referenced her situation in an application that would force law enforcement to keep exhibits in murder cases unless the inmate gives permission to destroy them. Thirty years later, Chaudhary steadfastly proclaimed her innocence to the parole board when questioned about the killing. But though she hinted to knowing who killed Gupta, she declined to point fingers in light of her legal challenge. "I know for a fact it's not me," she said Wednesday.""The entire story can be found at:

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2012/08/30/hamilton-chaudhary-parole.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

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.