, 2022-05-27 20:26:00,
One of the things I love most about the practice of law is the criminal cases I get to argue. Spanning the gamut from murders to assaults to following money trails — legal and illegal — criminal law is an exacting detail-oriented discipline. It is the piecing together by the prosecution of “they did it” while the defence will strive to establish that “the State has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that we did it”. Part of the process of investigation that results in the collection of proof pointing to innocence or guilt involves the deployment of forensic science.
What is forensic science? Katherine Ramsland writes in her book, Beating the Devil’s Game: A History of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation, that “forensic science is the application of scientific perspectives and techniques to the legal process, including investigations and courtroom protocol. It is accurate to say that it is the use of scientific data and procedures specifically for the legal system.” She adds that “the disciplines rely on the same values and methodology used by other members of the scientific community. There is rigorous procedure involved, including controlled conditions, reliable data collection and the attempt to disprove hypotheses.”
What does this forensic science of data collection and attempt to prove or disprove the hypothesis look like from the perspective of familiar techniques or methods? Essentially, methodologies like the autopsy procedures, fingerprinting, testing and matching for poisons, blood spatter analysis, matching guns to bullets fired (ballistics), voice sample matches, handwriting assessments and DNA analysis are all facets of forensic science.
Forensic sciences have gained great cultural popularity over the past two decades…
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