Investigators employed a new and vastly more powerful familial searching technology to identify the person now charged as the Golden State Killer. This new technology types over 700,000 locations on the human genome for ancestry and medical information, instead of the...
Forensics
Unregulated Public and Private DNA Databanks Need Legislative Supervision
DNA databanks are proliferating outside of the FBI’s CODIS network of law enforcement databanks and the regulatory framework that presently governs the collection, retention and distribution of DNA samples and records. These shadow DNA databanks primarily exist at the...
Ancestry DNA: Consider Privacy Risks of Familial Searching
People who submit DNA for ancestry testing can unwittingly become genetic informants on their innocent family members when the police search an ancestry DNA databanks for partial matches. Until there are meaningful statutory protections and robust quality assurance...
COSA Indifferent to Warrant-less Use of Facial Recognition
COSA Treating it as Modern-Day Equivalent of Telephone Tip Facial profiling technology is a new weapon in the investigative arsenal with big-data implications for the collection, use, and retention of facial images (and gait—for longer range identification) in...
Watch John Oliver Call Out “Bullshit” Reliability Of Forensic Science
Although DNA/forensic science may appear to swiftly and reliably solve crimes with flashy graphics on television crime dramas, John Oliver called out the “bullshit” of forensic science on “Last Week, Tonight” (originally aired Oct. 1, 2017). HBO has posted Oliver’s...
COA Clarifies Maryland’s Hybrid Legal Standard
Rochkind: The COA Clarifies Maryland’s Hybrid Daubert/Frye Legal Framework Governing Admissibility Of Expert Testimony. In Rochkind v. Stevenson, 454 Md. 277 (2017) the COA took a close look at the third prong of Rule 5-702, which requires that an expert’s opinion be...
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
Steve Mercer Invited to Address the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) (Washington, D.C.) On January 14, 2016, Steve Mercer addressed by invitation PCAST during a closed session. Steve also submitted this written statement discussing the...
Limits Of Cell Phone Location Evidence
3 NG’s in Murder Trials Highlight Limits Of Cell Phone Location Evidence Appointed public defenders recently secured acquittals in three murder prosecutions involving cell phone location evidence that was central to the State’s theories of guilt. These defense...
Drug Court Decision in Brookman – Carnes v. State
The COSA Holds Drug Court Sanction Involving Jail Is Appealable; Due Process Rights of Participants Violated When Drug Failed To Conduct Formal Adversarial Hearing. Reported in the Court of Special Appeals (April 27, 2017): Brookman v. State (No. 182) & Carnes v....
Hot Topic in Forensics: The FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST)
The strong demand in criminal cases for historical cellular location information has created opportunities for law enforcement to extend the limits of what is possible. The FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) is promoting a new methodology that it claims greatly...