Friday Roundup: Fixing Forensics to Fight Injustice

05.15.09

Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld testified before Congress this week on the need for federal research, support and oversight to ensure that forensics are based on solid science.

Watch a video of the committee hearing or download Neufeld’s testimony here

.

Your voice can help bring about forensic reform in the U.S. –

sign the new petition

calling for the creation of a National Institute of Forensic Science and explore the new

Just Science Coalition website

.

A new story from Reason Magazine examines the role of unreliable bite mark evidence in the wrongful conviction of Ray Krone in Arizona and reports on

a failed “proficiency test”

by Mississippi bite mark examiner Michael West.

An op-ed in the Dallas Morning News this week gave us a glimpse into the thoughts of former prosecutor James Fry as he considers

his role in the wrongful conviction of Charles Chatman

. The experience of seeing Chatman freed, Fry writes, has left him with a resolve to see the system fixed before more innocent people are wrongfully convicted.

A TV news report in Pittsburgh investigated the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence by joining a Duquesne University class for

an unusual experiment

.

And a British production company announced this week that it is beginning work on

a documentary film

about the wrongful conviction and exoneration of

Nick Yarris

, who served 21.5 years on Pennsylvania's death row before DNA proved him innocent.

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