Science Thursdays: North Carolina Likely to Pass Comprehensive Forensic Science Reforms
04.01.11
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
.
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