Explore Forensic Science – Fact or Fiction
5 January 2012 1 Comment
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
16 December 2011 Leave a Comment
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16 December 2011 Leave a Comment
Knox, 24, saw her conviction for the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher overturned on appeal in October.
The court said in a 144-page document that forensic evidence used to support the original verdicts was unreliable.
Miss Kercher, 21, from south London, was murdered in 2007 in the house she shared with American student Miss Knox in the Italian city of Perugia.
Also acquitted of the murder on appeal was Miss Knox’s former boyfriend, the Italian Raffaele Sollecito.
Case ‘gave way’
The court said the forensic evidence could not ultimately prove the couple were at the scene of the crime on the night of the murder.
It pointed to what it said were flaws in collecting forensic evidence and testing DNA traces originally linked to the defendants.
The prosecutors’ case could not stand, the court added.
The document said: “The bricks of that building just gave way. It’s not just a case of reassembling the bricks… but rather a lack of the necessary material for the construction.”
Referring to a motive, it said: “The sudden choice of two young people, good and helpful to others, to commit evil for evil’s sake, without any further reason, seems even more incomprehensible (if it is) to support the criminal act of a young man they had no relation to.”
In Italy, courts have to publish a document to explain the reasoning for reaching a verdict.
Book deal
Miss Knox was originally sentenced to 26 years in prison and Mr Sollecito to 25 years. The pair have always denied being at the Italian home of Leeds University student Miss Kercher at the time of the murder.
The judge upheld Miss Knox’s conviction for slander after she accused bar owner Patrick Diya Lumumba of carrying out the killing.
The sentence for that was set at three years, time that Miss Knox had already served.
Miss Knox has returned to her hometown of Seattle in the US, and is looking to sign a deal to write a book about her experiences.
Rudy Guede, an Ivorian, was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years’ jail in a separate trial.
He is now the only person serving time for the murder although prosecutors said he could not have killed Miss Kercher by himself.
OPINION:
So from that report we can say that she MAY have still committed the Murder but due to the Forensic Evidence being recovered in an inappropriate way we will never know. You will recall there were reports of a bra clasp not being sealed for 45 days and the officers laughing and joking on the video of them working within the scene.
Totally inappropriate behaviour. We all like to bring humour into our work, especially when the work is traumatic in nature (such as a murder), it’s a human way of coping… but there are times and places for that behaviour, and on video, in the scene is totally wrong.
Also the motive… needs to be clear when convicting in the first place.
Don’t forget to catch us on Twitter later today for #cclivechat, discussing cold cases, fingerprint recovery and many more themes… Noon EST (4pm GMT), look for the tag #cclivechat or follow me @TriniCSI
9 November 2011 Leave a Comment
OK, here is the story which I saw on Insightcrime.org
US Predicts Return to Caribbean Drug Trafficking Routes
A State Department official predicts that over the next few years traffickers will increasingly return to using the Caribbean to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
The assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, William Brownfield, was in Miami for a meeting of Latin American and U.S. diplomats to discuss regional security initiatives and multilateral cooperation against organized crime.
Over the last few years increased law enforcement presence and higher interdicting along the U.S.-Mexico border have caused drug traffickers to look for alternative routes. According to Brownfield, a return to the Caribbean routes, which have close proximity to supply, transit and consuming countries, would be the most logical decision for these organizations.
The Caribbean was used to ship the majority of cocaine consumed in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. As authorities cracked down on smuggling along this maritime passageway, however, drug traffickers shifted operations to overland routes via Mexico.
Brownfield also warned that technological innovations — like the increasingly sophisticated submersibles and semi-submersibles used to traffic drugs out of South America — make interdiction more difficult and demonstrate the need for more comprehensive anti-narcotics policies.
30 October 2011 Leave a Comment
There is always lots of talk about crime rates and different countries but sometimes you just want to see a picture of what is going on.
Try this one for the World Murder Rates.
9 October 2011 Leave a Comment
There have been many times when I have laughed and joked at the scene of a terrible crime. Not out of disrespect or because I had any feelings about the victim(s) or suspect(s) but because I, like you, am human.
There are many people who don’t understand that but when you are faced with the worst of society you need to find a way to deal with it. Most people, especially if you are in the Military or the Police (all emergency services) will use humour as a defence mechanism.
I defy anyone to go into scene after scene after scene and not be affected by them. I also defy anyone to keep all humour locked up while you are working these terrible scenes. Its the type of people we are, that can laugh and joke, while still carrying out a very professional job that enable these cases to be solved. Its our way of dealing with it, and yes the officers should do it away from the press and others (especially the family(s)), but they need to get what they are dealing with out of their systems.
I remember dealing with a body where rigour mortis had set in. The guy I was working with could not carry on for a good ten minutes through laughter when I tried to put the body in a body bag and the rigour snapped. I nearly flew through the roof the noise was like a bone breaking! he laughed so mu it took a long time for us to calm down again.
That in no way meant we were unprofessional. nor did it mean we didn’t respect the victim or appreciate the seriousness of the scene we were dealing with, but it meant we were human.
I would like to see the full reports of all the defence and prosecution and finally the judges reasoning as to the acquittals but the actions of this crime scene team are not all bad.
Forensic officers searching the bedroom of murdered British student Meredith Kercher were heard joking about taking cocaine to stay awake, it emerged today.
The two unidentified Italian CSI investigators are seen in the official video shown to the court during the appeal in Perugia of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
One of the men is heard to say: ‘I could really do with some cocaine to give me a kick.’
His colleague replies: ‘Don’t you mean crack?’ Both then laugh loudly while examining the blood-splattered room.
In other parts of the film they seem to be confused over which equipment to use to examine the scene and one then reveals how a product known as Luminol which shows up blood invisible to the naked eye has been left in Rome.
The revelations will bring fresh heartache for the Kercher family who after last week’s dramatic acquittal of Knox, 24, and 27-year-old Sollecito are left wondering just who killed their daughter.
She was found semi naked and with her throat cut at the house she shared with American student Knox.
During the appeal, the court heard from two forensic professors who were appointed by judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman to look into the way the investigation was handled and they produced a damning report.
Professors Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti said they had counted more than 50 errors police made as they examined the murder scene and their report was vital to the acquittal of Knox and Sollecito.
Key to the original conviction in December 2009 had been a 30cm kitchen knife recovered at Sollecito’s apartment and on which was found DNA from Meredith on the blade and that of Knox on the handle.
However the court was told by the experts the amount from Meredith was so low it should not be used as evidence because it could not even be retested – although the DNA on the handle was confirmed as Knox’s.
Sollecito was convicted because his DNA was found on a clasp from Meredith’s bloodied bra but the experts revealed that it was collected six weeks after the murder making the possibility of contamination highly possible.
The experts also pointed out how simple breaches of protocol when gathering evidence had been made including using dirty gloves, not covering hair and not changing shoe covers as well as putting items in plastic bags instead of paper ones.
This coupled with the ‘jovial unprofessional manner’ of the forensic team opened up serious questions over the reliability of the police investigation – although they insist all standards and regulations were followed.
Today no-one was available to comment on the joke made by the officers at the forensic unit HQ in Rome, but Patrizia Stefanoni who led the probe repeatedly told the court the investigation had followed procedures and criticism was unfounded.
Luciano Garofalo, a former commander of Italy’s leading forensic investigation unit with the carabinieri paramilitary police said:”You have to remember that these scenes of crime probes last hours and hours – we are not robots, we are humans.
“The work of the scientific unit has been criminalised over the last few weeks, they were just having a laugh and letting off steam.
‘I would like to put anyone in that situation and see how they cope, see if they don’t make a joke.
“The finds were reliable and at the end of the day its only these two so- called experts who have this theory which has not been double checked.
‘Are they experienced enough ? Are they up to the standards of the forensic police? ‘
Last night neither of Knox’s lawyers Carlo Dalla Vedova and Luciano Ghirga were available, but a member of the defence team said: ‘This is why we asked for an independent report. We were just not happy with the methods used.’
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Knox intends to sue Italian police for wrongful arrest and imprisonment – but she will have to wait a year until the Supreme Court in Rome makes a final judgment on the case.
They are will rule late next year on whether the appeal should be upheld or overturned and the trial reopened.
Meredith, from Coulsdon, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University European Studies degree and had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively. A third defendant, Ivorian drifter Rudy Hermann Guede, 24, was also convicted and had his 16-year prison sentence upheld by Italy’s highest court.
Following Monday’s acquittals, Guede’s lawyer has said he wants the case reopened, given Italy’s high court ruled that he did not act alone.
4 October 2011 2 Comments
There will be a million dollar book and film deal and Amanda Knox will start becoming an international figurehead for the injustices brought about by her incarceration in an Italian jail for four years. But this is really an injustice to the family of, and the victim herself, Meredith Kercher.
What can they do now? They have put their faith in a justice system that was shown for a number of reasons to be wrong. Can they be sure the case against Rudy Guede is secure? Why were two different versions of the case even brought to trial? That alone is very very strange and should have flagged some warnings to the Police conducting the enquiry.
If Rudy was convicted why was Knox not released then? Was there a review of the case at that time? there should have been because two people were convicted in one case with one timeline and then another was convicted using another time line…
Below are ten factors that helped Knox win her appeal case (thanks to the BBC).
Investigative journalist Graham Johnson, co-author of Darkness Descending: The Murder of Meredith Kercher, outlines 10 factors that helped Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito win their appeal.
1. Reasonable doubt
Amanda Knox’s lawyers managed to instil reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds over the quality of testing of the bra clasp belonging to Meredith Kercher – which it was claimed had Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA on it – and the knife that prosecutors argued was the murder weapon. The prosecution maintained Knox’s DNA was on the handle of the kitchen knife, with Ms Kercher’s DNA on the blade. The defence claimed that the amount of Meredith Kercher’s DNA on the blade was too small to test. An independent review disputed the prosecution’s claims.
2. Crime scene errors
A few police crime scene errors, such as contaminated samples, lost evidence and disputed procedures, were successfully portrayed as generalised incompetence. An independent review raised doubt over the attribution of some of the DNA traces, which were collected from the crime scene 46 days after the murder.
3. Lack of proof
There was no convincing proof that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were actually in the room when Meredith Kercher died. Even the presence of Amanda Knox’s blood and footprints in the house were successfully explained away. Her defence claimed that Knox’s blood could have been there because she was a resident at the farm house on Pergola Road. The evidence of Rudy Guede against Knox was also confusing. Guede, who is serving a prison sentence for sexual assault and murder, said that he heard her voice at the scene but didn’t see her face.
4. Motive
There was no credible motive for the murder. The prosecution stuck doggedly to the sex-game-gone-wrong explanation even though their own medical examiner said there was no evidence of rape in the days following the murder. An alternative motive, involving robbery, gained traction as the case rolled on, based on the unexplained disappearance of Meredith Kercher’s 200 euro rent money.
5. Unreliable witness
One of the key witnesses at the original trial, a homeless man called Antonio Curatolo, publicly admitted to being a heroin addict, undermining his observations that he saw Knox acting suspiciously by the scene of the crime on the night of the murder in November 2007.
6. Character
Knox claimed that some of the evidence put forward against her – stories about her strange behaviour after she was arrested and the prosecution’s focus on her sexuality – was no more than an attempt to demonise her to cover up for a weak case.
7. PR campaign
Knox’s family hired a Seattle public relations specialist, David Marriot, who for months repeatedly plugged the line: “Amanda will get out, it’s a done deal.” This created a self-propagating media frenzy, which – in the end – helped convince a largely sceptical Italian media.
8. Supporters’ presence
The massive presence of friends and family in Perugia in support fuelled the “Amanda is innocent” campaign. Italians have claimed that because Knox is American, the case has been handled differently, so as not to offend the US.
9. Appeals process
The Italian appeals process offers more guarantees to defendants than any other legal system in the world, whereby only the weakest evidence is treated, not the whole case. Knox’s team only had to attack the DNA evidence against her to undermine the whole edifice of the original trial. Italy has one of lowest prison populations in the world because of its lenient appeals process.
10. Favourable political climate
Silvio Berlusconi’s government vowed to tame his country’s fiercely independent system of magistrates – one that had been bolstered to fight the mafia. The more the government shows the magistracy to be incompetent the better for Mr Berlusconi. The ministry of justice is poised to investigate what went wrong.
20 August 2011 Leave a Comment
This following has been taken directly from the BBC website.
If you follow the link at the end of this post you can visit to see the video and hear some eye-witness commentary.
An RAF Red Arrows pilot died when his plane crashed following a display at the Bournemouth Air Festival in Dorset.
Flt Lt Jon Egging, 33, from Rutland, was killed when his Hawk T1 aircraft – Red 4 – crashed about 1km south east of Bournemouth Airport at 13:50 BST.
Eyewitnesses described seeing the plane plunge to the ground in a field near the River Stour at Throop village.
It was one of nine Red Arrows aircraft that had earlier taken part in a display over the seafront.
Shaun Spencer-Perkins, who witnessed the crash from Throop Mill, said: “I heard a rushing sound and I saw a plane about 15m above the ground racing across the fields.
“Members of the public jumped into the water to search for the cockpit.
“We waved down the helicopter, I took off my son’s orange jacket and my wife’s red jumper to get the attention of the helicopter.”
He said the plane had crashed about 100m from where he and his family were walking near the River Stour and debris was spread across a large area.
‘Cracking sound’
Another eyewitness, Nicholas Gore, 22, from Throop, was walking with a friend near the river when saw all nine Red Arrows go over.
“There were quite a few people watching and we saw them go over but one seemed quite low,” he said.
“They then disappeared behind trees and I heard a crack – not an explosion – just a crack and we got further down and I saw the plane with its red tail in the air and its nose in the river.
“Shortly afterwards there were emergency services everywhere.”
Mark Grogan was playing a round of golf at the nearby Parley Golf Centre, where he works, at the time of the crash.
He said: “I heard a sound like a car backfiring. Within five minutes the helicopters arrived, there were at least five helicopters including the police and two from the coastguard.
“One of the local farmers said they’d seen rescue teams pulling the pilot out of the river.”
BBC South Today producer Martin Webster, who was at the scene, said he saw only eight of the nine Red Arrows RAF display team’s aircraft land on the runway following the display at the annual event.
Darren Blakeman, who was watching the display, described what he saw: “We watched nine Red Arrows take off, then they did an approach from the south of the runway, they did a little display.
“After that display only eight of the airplanes landed and then there was a big siren went off at the airport, like an emergency sound, and there was a big yellow fire truck parked in the viewing area and then that rushed off with its blue lights going.”
Bournemouth Airport said flights were operating as normal.
A statement on its website confirmed that the airport was closed “for a short time but is now back to normal operations”.
“Passengers due to fly out of the airport this… evening are asked to check in as normal.”
Organisers of the Bournemouth Air Festival said events were continuing as scheduled.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said they were investigating the incident.
The crash site remains cordoned off by police and only people living inside the zone are being allowed access.
The Military Air Accident Investigation Branch were also admitted through the cordon to start work on identifying the cause of the crash.
All nine Red Arrows display pilots are fast jet pilots from frontline Royal Air Force squadrons.
Each aircraft can carry enough diesel and dye to create five minutes of white smoke, one minute of red and one minute of blue.
Both cockpit seats are fitted with Martin-Baker Mark 10B rocket boosted ejection seats.
20 August 2011 Leave a Comment
It is with sadness that I report that the aerial display team of the RAF Red Arrows from the UK MOD has suffered a crash during an air show near Bournemouth in England.
Here is a picture taken by a good friend who was attending the air show and managed to get this picture as the crews set off to board their jets.
Full details are still sketchy and reports are mixed on if the pilot survived the ordeal but as more news comes in with images I will update this post.
We hope and pray all survive this disaster.
All images with kind permission of Mac McNamee from www.imagesphotography.tv and were taken at that air show
email: enquiries@imagesphotography.tv
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