All’s not well in the…… District of Columbia

All’s not well in the…… District of Columbia

The story On the 23rd of April 2015 the Director of the Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) in Washington DC resigned and senior managers and legal counsel ‘fired’. The departure was the culmination of a series of events that began in October 2014 with a complaint...
DNA Evidence | Current Issues

DNA Evidence | Current Issues

In response to an invitation I addressed the latest meeting of the New Zealand Law Society (Wellington Branch) held at the Law Society building in Wellington, New Zealand, on the 18th of June 2015. My brief was to try and shed greater light on DNA evidence, an...
ISO 17025 is not a ‘gold’ standard

ISO 17025 is not a ‘gold’ standard

On the 17th of June 2015 the BBC website reported that, as a result of the fall in the number of forensic fibre experts, the killers of Stephen Lawrence might escape justice if the cold case review that led to their conviction was conducted today rather than in 2007....
R v T [2010] EWCA Crim 2439 | A Position Statement

R v T [2010] EWCA Crim 2439 | A Position Statement

This judgement of the Appeal Court in the jurisdiction of England and Wales was delivered in 2010 and produced what may well have been the greatest response yet from the forensic science community, both academic and practitioner. The assumed support of practitioners...

Deja vu

A recent story on a New Zealand news website highlights the poor accuracy of press reporting, if any further evidence were needed. It also draws attention to a report by a lawyer and psychologist which makes a number of familiar recommendations regarding expert...