Forensic Article from New York Times

Interesting piece from the New York Times.

I like this bit from the end:

Dr. Kobilinsky said people should not jump to the conclusion that forensic science is bad science. “There’s a lot of experience and knowledge that goes into somebody’s expertise,” he said.

“It’s not junk science. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be improved.”

Science

Plugging Holes in the Science of Forensics

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Published: May 12, 2009

A push in forensic science for the kind of rigorous, peer-reviewed research that is the hallmark of classic science.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/12fore.html

Finding Fingerprints with Heat

Interesting new technique for fingerprint processing. This has some potential I think, but I wonder about it's effect on subsequent processing? It would make a good research project for one of you students. Hit the link at the bottom for the full story.

Fingerprint imaging technology puts the heat on criminals

18 Mar 2009

The CSI teams on TV have all kinds of gadgets, but you won't see anyone at the crime scene reaching for a hairdryer. That could soon be changing thanks to a novel fingerprint imaging technique developed at UTS.

http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/detail.cfm?ItemId=14578

NY Times Article on Jurors Use of Technology

Interesting story from the NY Times about jurors use of technology impacting courtroom events. I'm sure many of you also saw the recent story of how one Officers Facebook posts were used against him during trial. This sort of thing is likely to continue to pose a problem in the future. More than ever, watch what you say. Hit the link below for the NY Times article.

US
As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: March 18, 2009
The use of BlackBerrys, iPhones, Google and Twitter by jurors is wreaking havoc on trials around the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html

The National Museum of Crime and Punishment

Opened May 23rd, 2008 at 575 7th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004.

If you are in DC, take the opportunity to visit the museum. It's definitely on my list of things I want to see when I get a chance to visit the Capitol.

For more info check out their website at: http://www.crimemuseum.org/

Personal Justice on TLC

Wednesday nights at 10PM on TLC. The show highlights cold case investigations which were kept alive by family members who refused to give up.

The Fitted-In Project

Update 5-6-2009: News release updated to current version.

Satish Sekar has a website devoted to his quest to prevent miscarriage of justice in the UK. You can read more about it below, and hit the link for all the latest updates.

News Release

http://www.fittedin.com/

Introduction:

Over ten years ago we published Satish Sekar's book 'Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry' in order to provoke changes in the law to help to reduce the risk of miscarriages of justice. They will occur in any jurisdiction, but measures can be taken to ensure that they are swiftly corrected. Advances in forensic science techniques offer an opportunity not only to correct miscarriages of justice, but to catch the truly guilty as well. The Lynette White case illustrates this, with the conviction of the true offender, Jeffrey Gafoor in 2003 and in 2008 the first convictions of those who had colluded in giving perjured evidence in the wrongful prosecution of the original defendants. However, there is now an urgent need to disseminate information efficiently and to make it accessible to the public, so that the original purpose of Sekar's book can be accomplished. An informed society is a protected one.

Aims and Objectives:

• To inform the public what forensic science can achieve.


• To inform the public how it can help to prevent miscarriages of justice.


• To highlight the need for lawyers and campaigners to understand what can be achieved through forensic science.

To highlight:

• The lack of investigation of flaws that caused miscarriages of justice


• The need for accountability over miscarriages of justice and the current lack of such accountability.


• The lack of accountability of public bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service.


• The effects of vindication and the requirement to cater for the needs of vindication, including the need to change tariff provisions to help prevent miscarriages of justice.


• The need for aftercare to assist them and their families to integrate back into society.


• The need for access to such information in and about other jurisdictions in order to ensure that relevant experiences are noted and learned from both in Britain and in other countries.


• Issues of social justice that have been ignored by mainstream media.


• The failure of people with power and influence to correct flaws in criminal justice systems in several jurisdictions.


• To stimulate discussion on these issues to effect policy changes and make information on issues of social justice available to inform the public.

Beneficiaries:

Victims of miscarriage of justice, their families and campaigning groups will benefit by having access to relevant information that can assist in their campaigning to overturn wrongful convictions. Law students will also be assisted by having free and easy access to pertinent information that will help them in the course of their careers.

Methodology:

The FIP's website will publish articles written by journalists with knowledge of key issues and also by professionals who can add to debates. It will also publish articles by others with pertinent information such as victims of miscarriages of justice. We will also conduct research projects relating to issues that arise to facilitate the required changes in legislation.

Proposal:

Miscarriages of justice help nobody. Not only have innocent people been wrongfully convicted, but recent cases show that some people such as Colin Stagg (Rachel Nickell Inquiry), the original defendants in the Damilola Taylor Inquiry and the Actie cousins (Lynette White Inquiry) have faced trial for crimes they did not commit. This helps the truly guilty to evade all sanctions for their crimes and society has wasted resource on a failure of the criminal justice system. The public is not only not protected by this, but put at greater risk. Mainstream media have ignored several issues of vital importance that could have informed the public and helped them to protect themselves. For example, real perpetrators have treated more leniently than the original defendants who were innocent. Despite vindication, or exoneration some innocent people receive no assistance to rebuild their lives, even though schemes exist to aid victims of miscarriages of justice. Properly utilised forensic science can help to prevent miscarriages or justice, correct them and help to convict to convict the truly guilty, yet many remain ignorant of such techniques.

Our website will provide access to such vitally important information, which will also be made available to lawyers as well. Content will be updated weekly. This includes cutting edge forensic science and DNA data-basing. We shall inform debate and inform the public of other issues of importance in order to help deliver justice. The website will be free and be maintained by contributions from top quality journalists, specialising in relevant issues, from professionals working within the criminal justice system and from victims of it. We will also provide consultancy services where required. We will cover and learn lessons from other jurisdictions as well.

Conclusion:

We had hoped that our services would no longer be needed, but more than ten years after the publication of 'Fitted In: The Cardiff 3 and the Lynette White Inquiry,' the issues that we highlighted then have not been resolved. There is an even greater need for the resource we will provide than ever before. We have an important role to play to ensure that vitally needed information is disseminated as widely as possible. An informed public is a protected society.

EnhancedAudio.com Ships New DC LIVE/Forensics

PRESS RELEASE

York, PA- Enhanced Audio Inc, creator of high quality PC products, has announced that a new version of their popular DC LIVE/Forensics tools is now shipping. DC LIVE/Forensics 7.5 Audio Laboratory allows Law Enforcement professionals to take advantage of the most complete noise reduction analysis and audio enhancement toolkits anywhere and includes additional tools that can’t even be found on the most expensive hardware solutions.

“This is by far, the most exciting new version of the product we’ve ever released”, said Curtis Crowe, President. “We’ve focused on building a cache of tools critical to today’s Law Enforcement professionals and armed those individuals with the power they need to clarify audio recordings of any type.”

EZ Forensics is a new tool to LIVE that takes into account that not all users of the product are Forensics experts. This easy to follow Wizard asks questions like, “Are there single or multiple talkers?”, “Is there background noise?”, “Muffled Speech?”, etc. After filling in the blanks, the computer will provide 4 different “answers” to that particular forensic problem and the user simply chooses the clearest approach.

LIVE/Forensics will also boast a completely renovated Adaptive filter. This new version will be dramatically more effective in separating speech from background noises- even in some cases, from music. The filter is not only much more capable, but it’s also now easier to use with a new Logarithmic Filter Length slider. This makes it much easier to find the “sweet spot” when previewing. Also included is a new display item that shows a time offset in milliseconds when using a second channel as a reference channel.

A new scrolling display feature has also been added to Live/Forensics. This much requested feature offers the ability to scroll the waveform horizontally during play. Your zoomed display will redraw with a new screen of waveform data whenever the play cursor reaches the right side of the window. A “scrubbing” feature has also been added so that your mouse controls playback speed and direction.

Changeable headers are now included with the popular onboard audio database so that standard terms can be customized to better fit the Forensics environment. You can now easily include “Case Number”, “Clip Name”, etc. Also, the disk making capability has been upgraded to include DVD burning, data disk burning, track at once and disk at once support.

The visual analysis tools have also been greatly enhanced and a much-improved Spectrum Analyzer with incredible range and flexibility has been added. The Spectrogram display has gone Hi Def and helps the user more easily spot edits, dual power signatures and other spectral anomalies in an audio file. In the Hi Def spirit of things, even the Make Waves generator now has the ability to create fractional frequency waveforms.

The Spectral Filter has also seen numerous improvements which include Inverse Mode, which measures the amount of energy throughout the frequency spectrum in a recording and automatically creates a filter which tends to equalize the energy in all frequencies to a reference contoured shape. This will be the new “Go To” filter for muffled voice or clarification jobs. Also Spectral Copy and Spectral Difference modes have been added when 2 recordings are present and give you the ability to copy and compare or copy and subtract recordings.

DC LIVE/Forensics begins shipment in February. The list price is $1499 with an upgrade price of $699 for any previous LIVE/Forensics customers.
The LIVE/Forensics manual contains over 400 pages of tips and practical demonstrations on Audio Restoration and Enhancement. Many of these tips and charts can also be found at www.enhancedaudio.com.

EnhancedAudio will also release a tutorial DVD which covers all of the tools new to DC LIVE/Forensics called Advanced Forensics Concepts Using DC LIVE/Forensics for an additional $89.

LIVE/Forensics is available exclusively from
www.enhancedaudio.com,
PO Box 189
Windsor, PA 17366
Phone 717 764 9240
Toll Free Sales Line 866 260 6376
Email Info@enhancedaudio.com
Web Site: www.enhancedaudio.com