Forensic Science Exam 1

Forensic science

The application of the scientific method and techniques to law and criminal justice; encompasses many fields and focuses on things after they’ve happened

Arthur Conan Doyle

Creator of Sherlock Holmes; based on Poe’s Dupin and Professor Joe Bell from the University of Edinburgh; preceeded and foretold chemical analyses for forensic investigation

In this course, we will…

• Seek an understanding

• Look for a rational basis

• Explore the links between law, criminal justice, and science

BCE (history)

fingerprints appeared as part of rephistoric painting and pottery to reflect individual identity

2560 BCE

Grand Vizier Imhotep in Egypt uses medical ideas to investigate crimes

44 BC

Anistius performed a detailed autopsy on Julius Cesar to solve his murder

10th centry AD

Quintillion used handprints to exonerate a framed person

1248 AS

Sung T’s manual on invest

Locard’s exchange principle

When contact with an object or person occurs, a cross transfer of evidence occurs (e.g., dust, biological samples, fingerprints, chemical residues); most basic concept of forensics

Principle of individuality

Two objects may be indistinguishable, but no two objects are ever identical; things are microscopically different (things can be put into classes or individualized)

Salem Witch Trials

• During the cold winter of 1691-1692, Betty Parris (9) became strangely ill

  • Flu like symptoms

  • Ran around, hid under furniture, contorted in pain, complained of fever

  • Strange dances led to collapse

  • Cotton Mather published “Memorable Providences,” describing the suspected witchcraft that Betty mirrored

• 19 men and women convicted of witchcraft were hung on Gallows Hill near Salem Village.

• An 80-year-old man was pressed to death

• Hundreds faced false accusations of witchcraft.

• Dozens incarcerated without truals

• Hysteria swept through Puritan, MA

1609 Medicine

• Doctors are not highly regarded; widely considered a day job

• Doctors often killed people

• King Henry VIII signed a decree merging two groups in the Great Company of Barbers and Surgeons

• Internal illness: the human body incorporated four different “humors”

  • Hot: sanguine = blood

  • Cold: phlegm = water

  • Dry: choleric = yellow bile

  • Wet: melancholy = black bile

• Illness can cause an imbalance

• External injury

  • Amputation: most died of blood-loss, shock, or infection

Hieronymous Bosch

Internationally celebrated as an eccentric painter of religious visions who dealt in particular torments of hell

Gangrenous ergotism

Nausea, pain in the limbs, extremities turning black/dry and mummified, infected limbs breaking off at the joint

Hallucinogenic (convulsive) ergotism

Flu and fever, nervousness, physical excitement, insomnia, vivid hallucinations, strange dances,

What forensic science and law do differently…

• Issue of certainty

• Issue of time

• Issue of truth

Scientific evidence is used in court because…

Forensic evidence is aimed at informing the court where it lacks expertise and can assist in determining facts

Admissible evidence

Evidence that a judge allows to be presented in court because it meets the legal rules for fairness, reliability, and relevance

Inadmissible evidence

Evidence that cannot be shown in court because it does not meet those standards

Frye Case

• Incident in DC in 1920: Homicide of Dr. Brown during robbery (in the middle of a Dr.’s office

• Later captured and confessed

• Strong prosecution case (1923)

• Defense introduced polygraphic evidence (lie detector)

Frye Standard

• A technique must be accepted by a meaningful portion of the relevant scientific community (including books, papers, prior judicial decisions, etc.)

• Problems: inflexible (and slow) and requires complete agreement in the scientific world

(THE FRYE STANDARD HAS CHANGED, AND IT IS POPULAR NOW TO USE THE DAUBERT STANDARD.)