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Application of forensic science
Forensic science and scientific method
Criminal investigations,forensics and evidence
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There is a certain case that helps explain what my understanding of facts are. In the year of 1983, Calvin Johnson was accused, tried, and sentenced to prison for the rape of a young lady. Clothes that the culprit wore were found at Johnson’s place and both Johnson and the culprit shared the same blood marker group. Most importantly, the lady was given an array of photographs containing potential culprits and Johnson was identified as the man who violated her. According to all of the “facts,” Johnson was clearly the criminal.
Even when Michael’s new defense team, through the innocence project, found a crime that was eerily similar to the method of murder and subsequent events to the one that Michael was convicted of, the new prosecutor in Williamson County fought hard to keep DNA testing from taking place, even stating that they objected to the testing now because the defense hadn’t requested it before (Morton, 2014). There was further evidence of ineffectiveness in that the coroner who’d changed his estimated time of death between the autopsy and trial, had come under scrutiny for his findings in this case, as well as several others, with claims of gross errors “including one case where he came to the conclusion that a man who’d been stabbed in the back had committed suicide” (Morton, 2014). This was only one of the many injustices that were committed against Michael Morton throughout his trial. In August of 2006, the defense was finally granted permission to perform DNA testing on the items that had been taken from his wife’s body (Morton, 2014). Although this testing did not reveal any information about the guilty party, it did at least give Michael the knowledge that Chris was not sexually violated before or after her death (Morton,
Episode seven of Making a Murderer begins with Steven Avery’s father, Allan Avery exclaiming: “They set him up!” Ironically, there is a decent amount of evidence to prove that—in this case—the “good guys” may not be so good. Due to the Avery lawsuit against Manitowoc County Police Department, Manitowoc police were not supposed to be on the Avery premises. But they were, and that car key in Steven Avery’s bedroom was found by police that were not supposed to be there.
The smell in the trunk of the car was tested and contained a large amount of chloroform and key compounds of human decomposition. Evidence is evidence but not all evidence is good, but the “smell of death” that was in the trunk could have been used as good evidence to the case. Why? Because they did not have any other good evidence to prove that she killed her daughter, but that one piece of evidence alone could have convicted her of murdering her daughter.
A look at the evidence of the murder case proves
The fact the there are other prints on the weapon does not prove anything, moreover that may have been his plan to clear himself of suspicion. But non the less his prints are still on the murder weapon and he alone has the strongest motive for murder and has the most evidence stacked against his claim of innocence. This claim of defense is practically irrelevant considering the ample amount of evidence proving the defense is in fact
The trial of the Century is what the media calls it, The state of california vs. Orenthal james simpson, the man acquitted of the murder of ex-lover Nicole brown and Ronald Goldman. On june 12, 1994 OJ was tried on 2 counts of murder. With the help of his defense “Dream Team” of high-profile lawyers which consisted of 8, Simpson was given a verdict of not guilty on October 3, 1995. How did this man get off on murder with actual evidence of blood samples ?
Wayne Williams is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of two adult men, but prosecutors believe Williams is responsible for killing twenty-three children during a time branded as the Atlanta Child Murders (Rowson, 2015). Since his conviction in 1982 Williams has professed his innocence, which has generated vast speculation among criminal justice experts concerning Williams’s involvement in these crimes (Rowson, 2015). A recent study conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI, the Innocence Project, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers revealed that before 1999 the FBI used faulty hair analysis in 96 percent of cases (Rowson, 2015). Furthermore, Williams’ attorney received a letter from the DOJ
At the crime scene the police discovered a glove, a knife, foot prints, blood evidence, even hair evidence. Some of Simpson’s hairs were discovered on Ronald’s shirt. A left handed glove was found outside of Nicole’s house and the other part of the glove was found at Simpson’s residence. William Bodziak, an FBI shoe print specialist, discovered that size 12 shoe prints were left behind. Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran reported that he thinks the murders were done using a single-edged knife.
An initial review of the crime scene photos indicates the possibility of latent bloodstains being present in certain areas. Looking closely at the snapshots suggests that certain areas have been cleaned. The door is clearly dirty in certain areas, yet a large portion of it is inexplicably clean and very white compared to the immediate surrounding areas of the door. On the floor, one can see something very similar with the metal plates. All of them are dirty and dusty to some extent – except the one in the lower left of the photo.
The court case I have selected is the Roper vs. Simmons case. Christopher Simmons (17) came up with the idea to murder Shirley Cook. Simmons brought this brought this idea to his two friends Charles Benjamin (15) and John Tessmer (16) and
Another piece of evidence is a woman who swears to have seen the young man stabbed the father through the last two windows of the train. The evidence says that she was asleep and when she woke up and turned to the window through the last two windows of the train, she was able to see how the young man stabbed his father. The only problem with this argument is that the woman wore bifocal glasses and nobody usually sleeps with glasses so it would be very difficult that without their lenses of such magnitude could see what actually
In a murder case where an 18-year-old, Sarah Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for committing a first degree murder for both her and dad. The case reopened when a retired crime lab technician Michael Howard “testified that whoever shot Diane and Alan Johnson at close range on September 2, 2003, would have been hit by a "rain" of blood spatter” (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/03/johnson/index.html?eref=sitesearch). Howard came up with his theories proving that, Sarah was not even close in committing those murders and it is a wrongful conviction. Based on blood spatter, Howard disclosed that the shooting which took place was at a very close range and blood would have been all over the assailant, where as there was no blood pattern found on Sarah’s clothes. In fact, the pajama pant, Sarah was wearing on the day of shooting had no trace of her parent’s DNA or blood.
Therefore, when a person argues that a juvenile was not aware of their crime is a discrediting claim. In 1990 in the city of Chicago, a couple expecting their first child were murdered in cold blood in the hands of a juvenile teen. The teen shot both the husband and the wife who pleaded for their lives and the life of their unborn child. Author of “Juvenile Justice Information Exchange”, Jennifer Jenkins states, “He reported to a friend, who testified at his trial, about his ‘thrill kill’ that he just wanted to ‘see what it would feel like to shoot someone’”. This killer was aware of his crime and was aware of who his victims were due to planning the murders months before.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.
