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COULD SCIENCE PROVE YOU GUILTY
shootstright
Member Posts: 342 ✭✭✭
November 28, 2005
JPFO ALERT: COULD SCIENCE PROVE YOU GUILTY
OF A CRIME YOU DIDN'T COMMIT?
In a criminal trial, we might be skeptical of the testimony
of an eyewitness or a psychologist. But when a forensic
scientist or lab technician takes the stand, we take
notice.
So do juries.
But should anyone accept "scientific" testimony at face
value? And more importantly, are police and prosecutors
putting innocent citizens through hellish ordeals on the
basis of many different varieties of questionable
"evidence"?
Last week, the journal _New Scientist_ dropped the latest
bombshell. They gave us one more huge reminder that
government scientists and technicians are just as fallible
as anyone, and that "scientific evidence" may not be what
it seems.
The new revelations are particularly important to gun
owners.
SCIENCE THAT ISN'T
In the last eight years, serious doubts have been cast on
the reliability of fingerprint evidence and the honesty and
competence of FBI lab work. More recently, JPFO has exposed
incompetence and lack of standards in the ATF's firearms
testing. (See links below.)
Now _New Scientist_
(http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825274.300)
tells us that "gun-shot residue" (GSR) used to "prove" that
a person fired a gun in an attack may not actually be GSR
at all. And even if it is, it didn't necessarily come from
firing a gun!
Read the article. You'll learn, among other things, that:
* False GSR can get on a person's hands when they handle
fireworks, certain industrial tools, or brake linings.
(Apparently mechanics are particularly susceptible to being
accused of firearms-related crimes.)
* Even when GSR actually is GSR, traces on a person's hands
don't mean they fired a gun or committed any crime. The
background amount of GSR found in a crime lab, for
instance, may be greater than that found on a defendant's
hands!
* One of the best places to get GSR on your hands is --
this is ironic -- the back seat of a police car.
Furthermore, there are no consistent standards for
determining whether traces on a person's hands are actually
GSR, or what concentrations of genuine GSR are required to
prove anything at all.
Finally, the article doesn't say it, but it's probable that
virtually every recreational shooter is frequently covered
with genuine -- but entirely innocent -- gun-shot residue.
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS
We have written before that prosecutors are increasingly
concerned more with their "stats" -- their conviction
percentages -- than with actual justice.
Couple this with the vast number of new crimes constantly
being created by governments and with the outrageous
mandatory minimum sentences for anyone convicted of a "gun
crime," and you have a recipe for disaster.
Furthermore, with programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods
actively seeking to prosecute "gun crimes" (including the
most non-violent acts) no gun owner is safe. If a jury
hears that we have gun-shot residue on our hands or that
our fingerprints were found at a crime scene, they don't
know enough to question the "facts."
The "expert" from the government says it's true. And the
"scientific evidence" says it's true. And so off to prison
we go ... for five or 10 or 15 years, or a lifetime.
In a culture that truly respected the Bill of Rights -- a
culture where laws were few and understandable, a culture
where government was limited and not given so much
automatic, unthinking respect -- abuses like this would be
few and far between. Prosecutors would not have such
awesome power. Independent agencies would have a stake in
making sure that science was truly scientific. And far
fewer innocent people would be dragged into court in the
first place.
We need to improve the science behind forensics. We need
more honest prosecutors and police departments. But above
all, we need a Bill of Rights culture -- a culture that
values individual rights and seeks _true_ justice for all.
A Bill of Rights culture is something only you and I can
create, one awakened mind at a time.
- The Liberty Crew
JPFO ALERT: COULD SCIENCE PROVE YOU GUILTY
OF A CRIME YOU DIDN'T COMMIT?
In a criminal trial, we might be skeptical of the testimony
of an eyewitness or a psychologist. But when a forensic
scientist or lab technician takes the stand, we take
notice.
So do juries.
But should anyone accept "scientific" testimony at face
value? And more importantly, are police and prosecutors
putting innocent citizens through hellish ordeals on the
basis of many different varieties of questionable
"evidence"?
Last week, the journal _New Scientist_ dropped the latest
bombshell. They gave us one more huge reminder that
government scientists and technicians are just as fallible
as anyone, and that "scientific evidence" may not be what
it seems.
The new revelations are particularly important to gun
owners.
SCIENCE THAT ISN'T
In the last eight years, serious doubts have been cast on
the reliability of fingerprint evidence and the honesty and
competence of FBI lab work. More recently, JPFO has exposed
incompetence and lack of standards in the ATF's firearms
testing. (See links below.)
Now _New Scientist_
(http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825274.300)
tells us that "gun-shot residue" (GSR) used to "prove" that
a person fired a gun in an attack may not actually be GSR
at all. And even if it is, it didn't necessarily come from
firing a gun!
Read the article. You'll learn, among other things, that:
* False GSR can get on a person's hands when they handle
fireworks, certain industrial tools, or brake linings.
(Apparently mechanics are particularly susceptible to being
accused of firearms-related crimes.)
* Even when GSR actually is GSR, traces on a person's hands
don't mean they fired a gun or committed any crime. The
background amount of GSR found in a crime lab, for
instance, may be greater than that found on a defendant's
hands!
* One of the best places to get GSR on your hands is --
this is ironic -- the back seat of a police car.
Furthermore, there are no consistent standards for
determining whether traces on a person's hands are actually
GSR, or what concentrations of genuine GSR are required to
prove anything at all.
Finally, the article doesn't say it, but it's probable that
virtually every recreational shooter is frequently covered
with genuine -- but entirely innocent -- gun-shot residue.
CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS
We have written before that prosecutors are increasingly
concerned more with their "stats" -- their conviction
percentages -- than with actual justice.
Couple this with the vast number of new crimes constantly
being created by governments and with the outrageous
mandatory minimum sentences for anyone convicted of a "gun
crime," and you have a recipe for disaster.
Furthermore, with programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods
actively seeking to prosecute "gun crimes" (including the
most non-violent acts) no gun owner is safe. If a jury
hears that we have gun-shot residue on our hands or that
our fingerprints were found at a crime scene, they don't
know enough to question the "facts."
The "expert" from the government says it's true. And the
"scientific evidence" says it's true. And so off to prison
we go ... for five or 10 or 15 years, or a lifetime.
In a culture that truly respected the Bill of Rights -- a
culture where laws were few and understandable, a culture
where government was limited and not given so much
automatic, unthinking respect -- abuses like this would be
few and far between. Prosecutors would not have such
awesome power. Independent agencies would have a stake in
making sure that science was truly scientific. And far
fewer innocent people would be dragged into court in the
first place.
We need to improve the science behind forensics. We need
more honest prosecutors and police departments. But above
all, we need a Bill of Rights culture -- a culture that
values individual rights and seeks _true_ justice for all.
A Bill of Rights culture is something only you and I can
create, one awakened mind at a time.
- The Liberty Crew
Comments
Corrupted justice...so what else is new ? The best test there is is nothing but death to the innocent..when used by tyranny.
Defense lawyers need to question EVERYTHING, the DNA too!
I've seen evidence including fingerprints somehow grow legs and get from a crime scene to some hapless framed defedant.
Defender
Private investigator licensed in AZ & CA that specializes in self defense cases.