Forensic History & Notable figures

1. Court Procedure

   1. Civil Cases: Between individuals or parties

   2. Criminal Cases: Involves the government charging a party for violating criminal laws

Prosecution: the party that files the criminal charges

Defendant: the party accused of committing the crime

• A forensic scientist can testify for any case type and for any side.

Voire dire

Legal process

• The scientist first establishes that they are qualified to offer expert testimony through the voire dire process

• Describe academic qualifications and training

• The prosecution then begins the direct examination, like a Q&A. 

• The goal is to bring out the facts in this case as well as evidence against the defendant

• The defense can attack the admissibility of the evidence presented as well as the qualifications of the scientist during voire dire

• Then the defense can cross-examine the witnesses

Goal is to use the other side’s witness to support your own case

Accreditation: a laboratory meets the standard of a third party

Subpoena: a legal document that orders someone to go to court because of evidence/testimony

Scientific vs legal procedure

1. Scientific method

   1. Form a hypothesis

   2. Test using experiments

   3. Revise the hypothesis

   4. Repeat until data agrees withhypotheses

Obtain evidence first, then come to a conclusion supporting evidence

2. Legal method

   1. Prosecution does direct examination to prove that defendant is guilty

   2. Defense does cross-examination to prove that defendant is not guilty

Obtain conclusion first, then find evidence supporting your conclusion.

Role: 

• Forensic scientists merge the field of law with the field of science

• They give expert testimonies with the goal to find the truth, not to support any specific side

• Prosecutorial bias is when forensic scientists only look for results that support a certain side

• The primary role for a forensic scientist is to supply empirical data, not to skew information

• Forensic scientists must hold opinions with contrite fallibilism: the acknowledgement that they could be wrong

Admissibility standards

• Before evidence is presented in court, it must be considered admissible

  • Admissible evidence must be reliable and relevant to the case. 

• Standards are systems used to determine evidence admissibility.

  • Frye standard: require new methods to be accepted by a large proportion of professionals in the relevant field

    • A bit outdated because  science is rapidly advancing and compartmentalizing (splitting into smaller sections)

    • Also viewed as vague and restrictive of scientific innovation

• Daubert standard: the trial judge determines if the evidence is useful and relevant

  • The judge also determines if the testing methods are valid

  • These decisions are made in Daubert hearings

Notable People

Victor Balthazard (1852-1950)

• A medical examiner in Paris, created a photographic method to identify firearm markings.

• Demonstrated the probability of two individuals sharing the same fingerprint (1 in 1060)

Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914)

• Forensic scientists in France, developed the first systematic method to identify aspects and criminals, called Bertillonage.

• The method was based on anthropometry (the study of the measurements and proportions of the human body). 

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)

• English forensic scientist who developed the first fingerprint classification system

• Identified the basic fingerprint patterns such as the loop, arch, and whorl

Dr. Calvin Goddard (1891-1955)

• Retired army physician from the United States

• Worked with the FBI to develop modern tools for forensic firearm analysis

Hans Gross (1847-1915)

• Austrian civil officer who coined the term criminalistics to describe forensic analysis

• Published the first forensic science textbook, Criminal Investigation in 1893

Edmond Locard (1877-1966)

• French criminologist trained in both law and medicine.

• Developed Locard’s exchange principle, stating that every person-person or person-place contact results in transfer of materials between them.

Mathieu Orfila (1787-1853)

• Spanish chemist, considered the founding father of forensic toxicology

• He focused on studying poisons, especially arsenic. He also developed techniques to detect arsenic in tissues and bodily fluids

Sherlock Holmes (fictional)

• A fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

• Stories about Sherlock Holmes played a major role in shaping the public image of forensic science, and inspired some of its pioneers.

• The stories delved into several areas of forensics, including trace evidence and forensic biology.