{"id":368622,"date":"2019-03-20T13:12:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=368622"},"modified":"2019-03-21T13:49:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T17:49:10","slug":"jennifer-mnookin-can-we-trust-forensic-evidence-368622","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/jennifer-mnookin-can-we-trust-forensic-evidence-368622\/","title":{"rendered":"Can we trust forensic evidence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a bread-and-butter scene for screenwriters on crime shows and courtroom dramas: the forensic expert takes the stand, describing the fingerprint or the bite mark that indisputably links the defendant to the crime. The prosecution\u2019s case is clinched.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not how it works. Faulty forensic science plays a role in about half of the cases in which wrongful conviction is later proved. When it comes to pattern identification, forensic science is often not very scientific at all, says Jennifer Mnookin.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFlawed Forensics:\u00a0 Why Troubling Expert Evidence Continues to Find its Way to Court\u201d<\/h3>\n

Jennifer Mnookin<\/strong>
\nMarch 26, 5 p.m.
\nHawkins-Carlson Room
\nRush Rhees Library
\nFree and open to the public<\/p>\n

This talk is part of the 2018\u201319 Humanities Center Public Lecture Series<\/a>, this year exploring the theme of expertise and evidence.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Mnookin<\/a> is the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law at UCLA, where she is also dean of the law school. She earned her law degree at Yale and a Ph.D. in the history and social study of science and technology at MIT. Mnookin is the founder and faculty co-director of the Program on Understanding Law, Science & Evidence at UCLA Law.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

She\u2019s the dean of the UCLA law school, and also the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law. On March 26, she\u2019ll be the last guest speaker in the 2018\u201319 Humanities Center Public Lecture Series<\/a>, dedicated this year to the theme of expertise and evidence.<\/p>\n

A leading scholar of legal evidence, Mnookin is the coauthor of Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony<\/em><\/a> (2016) and The New Wigmore: A Treatise on Evidence<\/em><\/a> (2010). Her article \u201cThe Uncertain Future of Forensic Science\u201d<\/a> was published last fall in Daedelus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences<\/em>, in a special issue devoted to science and the legal system.<\/p>\n

\u201cForensic science is at a crossroads,\u201d she writes, its credibility\u2014and the legal community\u2019s response\u2014uncertain. The pattern identification methods used by forensic scientists developed in crime laboratories that were specifically designed to aid criminal investigations and functioned as a part of law enforcement. Until recently, most forensic scientists did not have formal training in science, and while an undergraduate science is now required by many labs, few of the people who work there are scientists with PhD-level training.<\/p>\n

As a result, forensic science laboratories \u201chave generally lacked a \u2018research culture,\u2019 with little in the way of \u201cpeer-reviewed, high-quality evidence [that] establishes the scientific validity of often-used methods like tool mark assessments and firearms identification,\u201d according to Mnookin. There is a \u201cdeep cultural divide between forensic science practice and research science.\u201d<\/p>\n

For forensic scientists, it\u2019s time-honed, subjective judgment that\u2019s valued, not empirical studies or statistical modeling. \u201cIn many fields, we still lack substantial, validated information about how likely analysts are to offer inaccurate conclusions. Consider this point carefully,\u201d she writes. These forms of evidence are being used to establish guilt for serious criminal offenses, yet we lack substantial knowledge of how often the evidence presented is mistaken, overstated, imprecise, or wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mnookin\u2019s legal interests also include what she calls \u201csemi-legible visual evidence,\u201d a resonant topic for local experts, given Rochester\u2019s place in the world of imaging. Blurry photographs, low-quality dashboard or security video, and medical scans are just a few of the kinds of evidence she cites: both images that are only partially readable to laypeople but decipherable to those with expertise and images with irresolvable uncertainties for all. \u201cSemi-legible images cannot be said simply to speak for themselves,\u201d she writes; \u201cthey must be made to speak, through the exertion of effort, expertise, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2016 Washington Post<\/em> op-ed titled \u201cA Wake-Up Call on the Junk Science Infesting Our Courtrooms,\u201d<\/a> Mnookin and coauthor Harry T. Edwards, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., circuit, argued that science and justice are served together when forensic methods are required to demonstrate their scientific validity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe integrity of our criminal-justice system,\u201d they wrote, \u201cdeserves no less.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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