PBS FRONTLINE - The Real CSI - April 17, 2012

[Jeff P]

How reliable is the science behind forensics?:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/real-csi/

Watched this Tues night. Found it really interesting, especially the segments about the man in Portland, OR wrongly accused of being a terrorist based on a fingerprint partial - as well as the cases in Mississippi where innocent people were wrongly convicted of murder based on the testimony of an "expert" in bite mark analysis.

I usually avoid the off topic area. Before jumping to conclusions (or calling me a liberal) I suggest you think again. Because if you do that, you'd be wrong.

I found the program fascinating because I have a computer science background and had always assumed that "expert" testimony in courtrooms was based on a scientific foundation a little more solid than what was presented on the air.


-jp

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[PhantomOnTour]

I almost started a thread myself on this very topic/show.

I watched the program and found it very interesting.
Never knew that my fingerprint may share enough common points with someone else so as to fool an "expert"

Frontline is awesome

[Tom]

I almost started a thread on this, too!
I was amazed at how little scince is really used to send people to jail, or worse...HELL!

I found the test results when the finger print "experts" had to make calls only on the prints, not anything about the person.

I have always thought justice must truly be blond - a person on trial should not be identified or seen by the jurors, and the voice, if testimony is given, should be garbled. All that matters are the facts of the case.

I bet far more people would be acquitted that way.