Forensic Overview

FBI Lab in Quantico, Virginia

700 employees, 24 units

Chemical Analysis Unit: Analyze drugs/residue, explosives, liquids, powders, and gases

Forensic Photography (not the same as Crime Scene Photography): Photograph is analyzed/compared to something else

Biological Evidence Collection, serology: Look at evidence and examine for bodily liquid stains

DNA

Nuclear and mitochondrial (mt) DNA: Analyze blood using DNA, no longer just blood type

CODIS (Combined DNA Index System): National DNA database, Started in 1998, National, state, and local databases, Greater than 500 thousand cases solved because of CODIS, More than 300 wrongfully convicted individuals exonerated because of CODIS

Russell Jordan case: Solved with mtDNA- only comes from the mom, identical to mom and other maternal relatives, Bones, teeth, and hair all have mtDNA, His bones were discovered in the desert and identified using mtDNA

Firearms and Toolmarks: firearms examiners compare using unique microscopic marks

Shoe Print Database: links to make and model of shoe (not specific pair, therefore not to specific person)

Latent Prints: Must do something to reveal them (cannot be seen without some technique to reveal them), Doesn’t have to be fingerprints, can be palm/footprints

Shoe Bomb: Richard Reid took off his shoe and attempted to light an IED on AA flight 626, Would have worked and absolutely obliterated the plane, but the sweat from his foot neutralized the bomb before he ever lit it

Evidence Collection and Preservation: completed by the Evidence Response Team

Forensic Entomology: insects