Science Thursdays: North Carolina Likely to Pass Comprehensive Forensic Science Reforms

North Carolina is on the cusp of passing comprehensive forensic reform legislation, and discussions about forensic science continue in the UK. Here’s a roundup of forensics news:

 

A BBC reporter

interviews

Brandon Mayfield and investigates the problems with fingerprint analysis revealed by Mayfield’s wrongful arrest for the Madrid bombings.

Nature Magazine

discusses

forensic science problems in the United Kingdom.

Although North Carolina district attorneys assured the public that

all the defendants

in the questioned convictions flagged in an SBI audit were guilty,  the case of Christopher Foye demonstrates that exculpatory

evidence was withheld

from defendants.

Legislation to overhaul North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation has been approved by both the Senate and the House and now

heads to the Governor’s office

.

Minnesota Public Radio interviews Chief Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker discussing the practice of

forensic pathology in the wake of a mass disaster

. There are no consequences when biological evidence is

destroyed

, despite the fact that DNA exonerations depend on the existence of such

evidence

.

Oklahoma hired a new medical examiner after the state office, which has a backlog over 1000 cases,

lost its accreditation

last year.

Anthropologists from North Carolina State University found that the weight of a person may have an effect on that person’s

bones

.