intro to forensics

Precedent a legal principle or rule that comes from a court decision that can be used as a point of reference for deciding other cases

Binding Precedent a decision from a higher case that must be followed by lower courts in similar cases.

Stare Decisis decisions from higher courts are generally binding to lower courts.

Principle of Individuality the idea that even though two objects may be indistinguishable, they can never be exactly identical.

Locard’s Exchange Principle when two objects come into contact, some information is transferred between the two.

CSI Effect has been coined to describe the observation that juries now deemed and require forensic evidence in criminal trials.

Joiner Case the case that set the standard that all experts limit their opinions to straightfoward conclusions.

Khumo Case requires that all expert testimony meets the Daubert Standard.

Melendez-Dias Case allows defendants to require analysts to show up at trial when presenting scientific analysis.

Mathieu Orfila 1814 Professor in Medicine, the Father of Toxicology and wrote a book that classified poisons used by criminals.

Zacharias Jansen 1590 Invented the microscope and made great advancements for biology, In 1880 the microscope was used for Forensics bullets, fingerprints, hairs.

Johann Schultz 1724 invents the principles of photography, the first photograph was made in 1826.

Thomas Byrnes 1886 NYC Detective that collected mugshots and used for the general public

Sir Author Conan Doyle Late 1880s was the Author of Sherlock Homes and popularized Crime detection methods.

Edmund Locard 1910 established the first police crime laboratory in France, developed a method for analyzing crime scenes in search for minuet evidence, examples are hair, fiber, and paint “Every fiber leaves a trace”.

Alphonse Bertillon 1879 beginning of anthropology, measured body parts along with photos of personal identification.

Francis Galton 1892 developed a method for classifying fingerprints and was Charles Darwin’s cousin.

Karl Landsteiner 1900 identified the different blood types (A, B, AB, O) and Rh Factor (+ -) and was used for blood transfusions.

Dr. Leon Lattes 1915 developed the first antibody test for ABO blood groups from a dried blood stain.

Calvin Goddard (1891 - 1955) utilized the comparison microscope to analyze bullets.

August Vollmer (1876 - 1955) set up the oldest forensic lab in the US with the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid 1920’s.

J. Edgar Hoover 1932 formed the FBI laboratory.