Science Thursday

Oneida County, New York, debates continuing its elected coroner system, and a California grandmother’s sentence is commuted in a misdiagnosed shaken baby syndrome case. Here’s this week’s round up of forensic news:

 

Oneida County, New York, is considering

replacing its coroner offices

with a county medical examiner’s office due to administrative failures, including missing reports on prison deaths and failing to pay funeral directors for months.

 

Governor Jerry Brown

commuted the sentence of Shirley Smith

. New challenges to the original autopsy results of Smith’s grandson raised by Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. James Ribe played an important role in her clemency petition.

 

Researchers in Spain and New York are

investigating the use of a special kind of spectroscopy

to characterize gunshot residue patterns.