Science Thursdays: Nassau County Lab Scandal May Cost $500,000

Washington State researchers developed a new method to analyze blood spatter, Nassau County Police must find money to retest drug samples at an independent lab, and shaken baby syndrome diagnoses continue to trouble Canadian courts.  Here’s a roundup of forensics news:

Nassau County Police will pay for an independent laboratory to retest evidence in up to 3,000 felony drugs cases using asset-forfeiture funds.  The cost could be

as much as $500,000

.

Researchers from Washington State University have developed a method to

determine the height of the source of blood spatter

using data from many droplets released from the same angle but at different velocities. 

The FBI began using a new computer system that can search a database of 70 million sets of fingerprints in

seven minutes

, down from 17 minutes with the old system.

A Virginia judge approved state funds to pay for a

private investigator and an expert in forensic pathology

as defense experts in an Orange County murder trial.

For the first time since 1995, Mississippi will have a

Chief Medical Examiner

.

Radley Balko

discusses

his approach to reforming forensic science.

The “Shaken Baby” Death Review Committee in Ontario has chosen to review four cases for

possible wrongful conviction

after examining 48 criminal convictions that had relied on evidence of abusive head trauma. 

Due to budget cuts, the average number of samples police in the UK send for forensic analysis has been

reduced by 23 percent

.