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List three reasons for unparalleled growth of crime labs in the U.S. since the 1960's.:eek2:

1. Discovery that so many men convicted of rape many years ago, were actually innocent when crime-scene DNA was analyzed.

 

2. DNA analysis technology, especially the ability to analyze microscopic amounts of DNA, has expanded enormously over the last two decades.

 

3. The growth of forensics, including the ability to perform many forensics at the scene of the crime, national access to forensics databases, sheer computer power and data storage capacity, and the variety of chemicals and biologicals that we can now detect and interpret in the lab, and the speed with which we can perform forensic analysis, have expanded enormously over the last two decades.

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Prosecution cowers juries with the implied if not claimed inarguable accuracy of forensic science. The average person knows nothing and readily defers to priests and scientists.

 

In point of fact, putting a tech in the witness box and grilling it well done will often collapse a prosecution. "When did you last cailibrate the equipment?" "Did you run positive and negative controls, and what were the results?" "What is the standard deviation and variance of your last 100 measurements?" Forensic science as commonly practiced is an exercise not an analysis. The techs are bottom tier and the results are scatter plots. The law is not about objective truth. The law is about precedent.

 

--

Uncle Al

UNDER SATAN'S LEFT FOOT

Vote a 10 for the experiments!

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Prosecution cowers juries with the implied if not claimed inarguable accuracy of forensic science. The average person knows nothing and readily defers to priests and scientists.

 

In point of fact, putting a tech in the witness box and grilling it well done will often collapse a prosecution. "When did you last cailibrate the equipment?" "Did you run positive and negative controls, and what were the results?" "What is the standard deviation and variance of your last 100 measurements?" Forensic science as commonly practiced is an exercise not an analysis. The techs are bottom tier and the results are scatter plots. The law is not about objective truth. The law is about precedent.

 

--

Uncle Al

UNDER SATAN'S LEFT FOOT

Vote a 10 for the experiments!

 

Is that one or two of the three reasons?

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One reason: the first paragraph. People will believe pretty much anything if it is gayly decorated faith rather than drearily dripping hard facts,

 

Energy Tribune - Scientifically Illiterate and Innumerate: Why Americans Are So Easily Bamboozled About Energy

 

Michael Jackson's doctor should be good for a few weeks of show trial. Forensics! Take a lock of the deceased's hair. Section it from scalp to distal end. Dissolve the segments, HPLC/MS. Get a three-month chart of his drug use. Takes about a day. Do you see that happening? Of course not. Forensics! Forensics and Official Truth.

 

Do you find it curious that emulsified 2,6-diisopropylphenol is such a powerful anesthetic but BHT is not?

 

--

Uncle Al

UNDER SATAN'S LEFT FOOT

Vote a 10 for the experiments!

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One reason: the first paragraph. People will believe pretty much anything if it is gayly decorated faith rather than drearily dripping hard facts,

 

Energy Tribune - Scientifically Illiterate and Innumerate: Why Americans Are So Easily Bamboozled About Energy

OK, I wasnt sure if you were implying the defense running its own tests at a different lab.

 

Michael Jackson's doctor should be good for a few weeks of show trial. Forensics! Take a lock of the deceased's hair. Section it from scalp to distal end. Dissolve the segments, HPLC/MS. Get a three-month chart of his drug use. Takes about a day. Do you see that happening? Of course not. Forensics! Forensics and Official Truth.

No need for forensics beyond the ME report. The doctor gave up his 5th and has been cooperating with the investigation. He will cop a plea.

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1. The area of science that can be applied to the investigative field has grown in leaps and bounds in that time frame.

 

2. The technology to allow ^ has solidified.

 

3. In the legal arena it has two big plusses...degrees of certainty (people like and understand numbers) and contorted names, phrases, jargon (people tend to believe what professionals say...ESPECIALLY if they don't understand it).

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...Energy Tribune - Scientifically Illiterate and Innumerate: Why Americans Are So Easily Bamboozled About Energy...
Uncle Al is right.

 

I bump into an inordinate number of high school kids at my Unitarian congregation and at the various talks I give. I would say 75% of them don't merely acknowledge they "aren't good at math", they positively BRAG about it. They feel absolutely no obligation to learn it because they "aren't good at it" -- in other words, they have totally rationalized that it's NOT THEIR FAULT.

 

And they insult and demean any kids who ARE good at it.

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