Junk Science Locks Up Innocent People

[Ubiquitous]

DNA testing reveals that long-used forensic methods are error-riddled.

TV shows like CSI, Law and Order, and NCIS depict incredible technology
identifying criminals.

https://youtu.be/x5xDwxnzTRM

In one NCIS scene, a 3D hologram identifies a person's teeth, precisely
matching the killer's bite to a bite mark on a victim. "A little 3D magic for
clarity and I give you -- the killer's incisors!" NCIS character "Abby"
announces proudly.

John Stossel loves crazy Abby, but notes that in the real world, court-
approved experts reach similar conclusions - without good science to back
them up.

Alfred Swinton was convicted of murder after "bite mark expert" Dr. Gus
Karazulas said Swinton's teeth matched a bite on a victim.

Karazulas told to the TV show Cold Case Files: "We look at the evidence and
we make sure that if we are going to make a decision it's gonna be a truthful
decision."

But a decade later, DNA testing showed it was not Swinton's DNA on the bite
mark. He was released after 18 years in prison.

To his credit, Karazulas now admits he was wrong. "Bite mark evidence is junk
science," he tells us by email. He testified to that in court and resigned as
a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The verdict was wrong because bite mark analysis has never been
scientifically proven, says Chris Fabricant of the "Innocence Project" -
which represented Swinton.

Fabricant tells Stossel that bite mark analysis "is similar to you and I
looking at a cloud, and then I say, `John, doesn't that cloud look like a
rabbit to you?' And you look at it and say, `yeah, Chris, I think that does
look like a rabbit.'"

Many experts agree. "Bite mark analysis is a subjective method," reads a 2016
report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,
which notes that even the most positive studies on it find an error rate of
1-in-6.

NYPD detective Harry Houck tells John Stossel that he agrees bite mark
analysis has problems, but that it can be used as one piece in a puzzle to
convict people.

Other methods have flaws, too. Even fingerprint analysis sometimes goes
wrong, as do carpet fiber evidence, gun tracing, and hair matching.

Stossel asks Fabricant: "Why do judges admit this stuff? Why don't defense
attorneys get it thrown out?" Fabricant answers, "We all went to law school
because we don't know science, we don't know math. And if somebody comes in
in a white lab coat ... that's good enough for government work."

That shouldn't be the standard, says Stossel. Jurors and judges should be
much more skeptical of "scientific" evidence.

--
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