NCJ Number
146304
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 84 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1993) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
L N Weisberg
Date Published
1993
Length
248 pages
Annotation
Several articles in this symposium journal issue explore the the history of identifying individuals by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), while other articles focus on issues and techniques associated with the evidence admissibility in court.
Abstract
The overall theme that emerges from dealing with scientific evidence over the past three decades is that existing rules of evidence do not adequately protect courts from the use of evidence that is not scientifically proven. Therefore, judicial caution is recommended in accepting the reliability of evidence, particularly since most witnesses who testify as experts for the prosecution are technicians rather than true scientists. In addition, some evidence examiners who may qualify as experts do not always understand the sophisticated instrumentation used in crime laboratories. Even when crime laboratories employ qualified scientists, these individuals may have a pro-police bias and be willing to circumvent scientific investigation methods for the sake of making their point. Further, expert witnesses notoriously stray outside the limits of their expertise and some blatantly exaggerate their qualifications to the point of perjury. Symposium articles discuss such topics as the use of fraudulent or manufactured evidence by experts, the admissibility of genetic identification tests, the statute of limitations in memory repression cases, legal criticisms of DNA typing, and the use of the horizontal gaze nystagmus test in the courtroom. Footnotes and figures