Forensic Challenges in Criminal Justice System: The Impact of Misleading Evidence

Convicting the Innocent, Ch 4, 5 - Forensics - Motivated Liars Announcements: Central Prison visit this coming Friday Questions before we start? Speaker: Darryl Howard, feedback on his talk. Luckiest or unluckiest man in the world? 11 gun shot wounds, 3 stabbings, 23 years in prison, wow. Should your criminal background / rap sheet matter? The jury took just 1 hour to convict him. Catch-up from last time: From slide 12, eyewitness ID gone bad Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Gary Dotson No crime ever occurred Microscopic hair, bullet, other types of comparisons Excluded clearly different Consistent with , Not excluded , Included no difference found Note that consistent does not say if it is 1 in 10,000,000, or 1 in 3. Note also that it is a subjective determination Good defense lawyers, and experts, matter Dotson s lawyer did not challenge clearly erroneous or misleading forensic testimony If you have the opportunity to appeal, but do not, then by finality you may not raise the issue again. Appellate attorneys have to show Ineffective Assistance of Counsel (IAC) Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Blood types: reliable tests exists, but very large groups (Source: American Red Cross) Caucasian African- American O + 37% 47% O - 8% 4% A + 33% 24% A - 7% 2% B + 9% 18% B - 2% 1% AB + 3% 4% AB - 1% 0.3% Latino- American 53% 4% 29% 2% 9% 1% 2% 0.2% Asian 39% 1% 27% 0.5% 25% 0.4% 7% 0.1% Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Microscopic hair comparisons 2009 National Academy Review: no scientific support Many hairs from the same person: they can look different Take 100 hairs from a crime scene, find 3 that match, call it a day. Blood analysis has an objective chemical indicator for a match (but very large groups); hair analysis has only the qualitative judgment of the analyst: no clear definition of what constitutes a match. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Share an association v. he was there Testimony is often taken as more compelling than it is. Forensic scientists often work as part of the state team Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Problems with DNA, even? DNA excludes, but there is a confession, what to do? DNA excludes, but there is witness testimony, what to do? Darryl Hunt: DNA excluded him, but the judge said maybe he participated in the crime but did not leave DNA, and kept him in jail, exonerated years later. Ed Chapman: His semen was found in the victim s body, but he had not killed her You still need a theory of the crime. And no shenanigans in the chain of custody, no planting of evidence in the crime lab. (Spill blood on a piece of clothes.) Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Bite marks Ray Krone http://www.forensicdentistryonline.org/ray-krone-2/ The snaggletooth killer http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/nov/19/man-wrongly- convicted-as-snaggletooth-killer-to/ Dentist testified that only those teeth could have produced the marks on the body. DNA showed later a sexual predator living nearby had done it. He was never targeted by police, but later incarcerated for a subsequent similar crime. Krone served 10 years, 2 on death row. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

What to do with tests that fail? Suppress evidence that contradicts the theory of the crime This is illegal, a violation of Brady v. Maryland. However, Brady applies to the DA. What if the police investigators, crime lab, or experts just don t pass on dry leads to the DA? In wrongful conviction cases, in retrospect, there was often tunnel vision. Evidence pointing to other suspects is often overlooked. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Can your dog smell underwater? See the Bill Dillon case: https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?casei d=3177 Note that the magical dog handler, John Preston, had done hundreds of cases in Florida and Arizona He worked in over 100 convictions across the country, mostly in Florida. Florida has refused to reinvestigate his cases, though there were 2 DNA exonerations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Preston_(dog_handler) Bill Dillon used to live in Chapel Hill, served 27 years. See his CD: Black Robes and Lawyers Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Would you lie on the stand if You were facing 3 years in prison for robbery but you had not yet been sentenced, and if you cooperated you d get 6 months instead? Your son / friend / cousin / mom / loved one was on probation and the DA said maybe it would help their case if you cooperated? Your ex-boyfriend had gotten another girl pregnant while you thought he loved you alone, had stolen from you, was a drug dealer, and the police were asking if maybe he was involved in a certain crime. You needed $250 for your rent / drug habit / light bill / to buy your kids Christmas presents and the crime stoppers hot line offered it if you gave testimony that led to a conviction See the Chapel Hill crime stoppers page: http://www.crimestoppers- chcunc.org/AboutUs.html Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

Motivated testimony Jailhouse snitches / informants, oops, jailhouse fabricators Co-defendants Think about the Trump investigation Small fish Michael Flynn seeks to protect his son from prosecution, cooperates with the FBI FBI can do many things to reduce time served Motivated testimony is crucial to many crime investigations, especially from co-defendants. One of them needs to turn state s evidence or cooperate with the prosecution. Obviously they want a reduced sentence in return. This is the prisoner s dilemma. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018