Science & Law Blog
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Networken-US2009-06-21T22:56:50-04:00typepad/cJychttp://feedburner.google.comOsborne and the Right to Post-conviction DNA Testing (II)
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/06/osborne-and-the-right-to-postconviction-dna-testing-ii.html
On November 8, 2008, I outlined the issues in the Osborne case that the Supreme Court decided a few days ago (June 18, 2009). The Court avoided the core issue of whether a prisoner has a right to be released...Science Guy2009-06-21T22:56:50-04:00Taking Liberties with the Numbers
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/04/taking-liberties-with-the-numbers.html
This month's issue of the California Lawyer perpetuates the confusion in the media about DNA database trawls. In an article entitled "Guilt by the Numbers: How Fuzzy is the Math that Makes DNA Evidence Look So Compelling to Jurors?," award-winning...Science Guy2009-04-18T19:54:44-04:00Two Cases on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/04/two-cases-on-multiple-chemical-sensitivity.html
A diagnosis that is presented in courts with some regularity is "multiple chemical sensitivity." Wikipedia provides the following links and remarks about its dubious scientific status: "Because of the lack of scientific evidence based on well-controlled clinical trials that supports...ScienceScience Guy2009-04-16T13:11:29-04:00Genetic Datasets to Stay Closed
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/03/genetic-dataset.html
"The National Human Genome Research Institute is sticking with a decision, made last summer, to remove free-access, pooled genomics data [from] the Internet." An article in the American Scientist implies that one reason for the decision is that "law enforcement...Science Guy2009-03-07T17:59:22-05:00McDaniel v. Brown: The Supreme Court, Bayes' Theorem, Five Brothers, and Two Errors in DNA Probabilities
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/03/mcdaniel-v-brow.html
At the end of January, the Supreme Court granted a petition for the writ of certiorari in McDaniel v. Brown. I noted this case back in May 2008. In Brown v. Farwell, 525 F.3d 787 (9th Cir. 2008), as the...Science Guy2009-03-07T16:36:01-05:00Viewing the National Academy Report on Forensic Science
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2009/02/viewing-the-nat.html
The National Academy of Science has been generating a lot of reports recently on forensic science topics. Its latest, long-delayed, long-awaited effort is the most ambitious. It surveys all fields of forensic science and calls for dramatic reforms in the...Science Guy2009-02-19T08:21:41-05:00Simpley neurology
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/11/simpley-neurolo.html
Around the 1950s, psychiatry and law was in vogue. Today, we are hearing a lot about neurology and law. In the spirit of Jay Leno's "Headlines," here is an advertisement from the Oxford University Press catalog: Neurology Second Edition Michael...Science Guy2008-11-22T10:32:43-05:00Osborne and the Right to Post-conviction DNA Testing
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/11/osborne-and-the.html
The Supreme Court will consider whether an individual convicted of a crime has a constitutional right to obtain a DNA sample that might exonerate him. The case that raises this issue has produced four appellate opinions so far. The one...Science Guy2008-11-07T22:25:22-05:00Genetics Datasets Closed Due to Forensic DNA Discovery
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/09/genetics-datase.html
Until last Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other groups had posted large amounts of aggregate human DNA data for easy access to researchers around the world. On Aug. 25, however, NIH removed the aggregate files of individual...Science Guy2008-09-05T18:09:18-04:00Hot Tubbing: Old Wine in New Bottles for Expert Witnesses
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/08/old-news-on-exp.html
The New York Times has discovered that expert witnesses retained by parties often are partisan. This certainly is fit to print, but is it news? Not to anyone who has been reading law reviews and opinions written during the past...Science Guy2008-08-11T23:17:31-04:00The Birthday Problem in Las Vegas
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/08/the-birthday-pr.html
The other week, an editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal misconstrued the now infamous 2001 findings of partial matches in the Arizona DNA database. The study was discussed on our blog on July 20, and I won't repeat the explanation...Science Guy2008-08-11T16:55:21-04:00Fingerprints' Chemical "Footprints"?
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/08/fingerprints-ch.html
Today's New York Times reports a story that appears in this week's Science. According to the Times, "With a new analytical technique, a fingerprint can now reveal much more than the identity of a person. It can now also identify...Science Guy2008-08-08T15:01:13-04:00DNA Database Woes and the Birthday Problem
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/07/dna-database-wo.html
The Los Angeles Times has reported that "A discovery leads to questions about whether the odds of people sharing genetic profiles are sometimes higher than portrayed. Calling the finding meaningless, the FBI has sought to block such inquiry." Actually, the...Science Guy2008-07-20T23:13:36-04:00The Psychology of Fuel Efficiency
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/06/the-psychology.html
A recent discussion started by John Lynch on the Society for Judgment and Decisionmaking listserv focuses on an interesting new article by Larrick and Soll in Science, entitled the "MPG Illusion." The paper reemphasizes the point that statistical metrics matter....Science Guy2008-06-25T23:24:12-04:00The persuasive power of neuroscience
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/06/the-persuasive.html
The March issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience contains an article stimulated by the frequent appearance of news stories announcing the latest brain signature -- for love, aggression, greed, lying, etc. A group of researchers at Yale decided to...Science Guy2008-06-24T08:57:03-04:00Rounding Up the Usual Suspects III: People v. Nelson
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/06/rounding-up-the.html
On April 5, 2008, I mentioned People v. Nelson, 48 Cal.Rptr.3d 399 (Ct. App. 3 Dist. 2006), rev. granted, 147 P.3d 1011 (Cal. 2006), as a leading case on the admissibility of the various probabilities associated with cold hits in...Science Guy2008-06-22T14:20:20-04:00The Transposition Fallacy in the Los Angeles Times
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/06/the-transpositi.html
In an earlier posting, I noted a story in the Los Angeles Times about the perceived need to adjust the probability for a random match when an individual emerges as a suspect because of a trawl through a database of...Science Guy2008-06-08T01:49:42-04:00fMRI, Lie Detection, and Statistics
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/06/fmri-lie-detect.html
I'm blogging from the AALS Mid-Year Conference on Evidence in Cleveland, where I just moderated a discussion this morning on fMRI and Lie Detection featuring Steve Laken (Cephos Corp.) and Mike Pardo (Alabama). Although the studies on fMRI lie detection...Science Guy2008-06-05T13:57:36-04:00The Transposition Fallacy in Brown v. Farwell
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/05/the-transpositi.html
Earlier this month, Ninth Circuit held in Brown v. Farwell, No. 07-15592 (9th Cir. May 5, 2008) that a prisoner was denied due process of law because of a mistake involving DNA evidence. Troy Brown had been tried and convicted...Science Guy2008-05-30T06:01:22-04:00False Confession Testimony
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/science_law/2008/05/false-confessio.html
I participated on an interesting panel on the admissibility of psychological testimony concerning false confessions at the New York City Bar last night. Conventional wisdom, of course, is that no one would ever confess to a crime that they did...Science Guy2008-05-23T16:09:26-04:00