Bitemarks, fingerprints, drug talk, lie detectors. Junk science invented by cops and prosecutors have sent countless innocents to jail. But getting it ourt of the courtroom is a long, dififcult figh.
Why It’s So Hard to Rid the Courts of Junk ScienceA new book by the Innocence Project’s Chris Fabricant charts the rise and fall of bite-mark evidence and “science” in the service of law enforcement.
Jordan Smith
April 24 2022, 7:00 a.m.
STEVEN MARK CHANEY had nine alibi witnesses. From morning to night, his movements on June 21, 1987, were well documented. Nonetheless, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murders of John and Sally Sweek, drug dealers Chaney had previously bought cocaine from and to whom he supposedly owed $500 — his alleged motive for brutally murdering them that day in their Dallas, Texas, apartment. There was nothing to tie him to the crime, save for a supposed bite mark found on John’s arm that several forensic dentists said matched Chaney’s dentition.
Bite-mark evidence rests on a deceptively simple foundation: that human dentition is as unique as DNA; that skin is a suitable substrate to record that alleged uniqueness; and that forensic dentists are adept at identifying wounds, usually bruises or abrasions, that have been made by teeth and then determining whose teeth did the biting. As it turns out, none of these claims are supported by any research, and today bite-mark evidence, which has led to at least 35 wrongful convictions and indictments, is considered junk science.
No comments:
Post a Comment