1. Convicting the Innocent, Ch 4, 5 - Forensics - Motivated Liars
Announcements: Central Prison visit this coming Friday
Questions before we start?
Speaker: Darryl Howard, feedback on his talk. Luckiest or unluckiest man in the world? 11 gun shot wounds, 3 stabbings, 23 years in prison, wow.
Should your criminal background / rap sheet matter? The jury took just 1 hour to convict him.
Catch-up from last time:
From slide 12, eyewitness ID gone bad
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

2. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018
Gary Dotson
No crime ever occurred
Microscopic hair, bullet, other types of comparisons
“Excluded” – clearly different
“Consistent with”, “Not excluded”, “Included” – no difference found
Note that “consistent” does not say if it is 1 in 10,000,000, or 1 in 3.
Note also that it is a subjective determination
Good defense lawyers, and experts, matter
Dotson’s lawyer did not challenge clearly erroneous or misleading forensic testimony
If you have the opportunity to appeal, but do not, then by “finality” you may not raise the issue again.
Appellate attorneys have to show Ineffective Assistance of Counsel (IAC)
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

3. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018
Blood types: reliable tests exists, but very large groups (Source: American Red Cross)
Caucasian
African- American
Latino-American
Asian
O +
37%
47%
53%
39%
O - 8% 4% 1%
A +
33%
24%
29%
27%
A - 7% 2%
0.5%
B + 9%
18%
25%
B -
0.4%
AB + 3%
AB -
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

4. Microscopic hair comparisons
2009 National Academy Review:
“no scientific support”
Many hairs from the same person: they can look different
Take 100 hairs from a crime scene, find 3 that match, call it a day.
Blood analysis has an objective chemical indicator for a match (but very large groups); hair analysis has only the qualitative judgment of the analyst: no clear definition of what constitutes a match.
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

5. “Share an association” v. “he was there”
Testimony is often taken as more compelling than it is.
Forensic scientists often work as part of the state team…
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

6. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018
Problems with DNA, even?
DNA excludes, but there is a confession, what to do?
DNA excludes, but there is witness testimony, what to do?
Darryl Hunt: DNA excluded him, but the judge said maybe he participated in the crime but did not leave DNA, and kept him in jail, exonerated years later.
Ed Chapman: His semen was found in the victim’s body, but he had not killed her…
You still need a theory of the crime. And no shenanigans in the chain of custody, no planting of evidence in the crime lab. (Spill blood on a piece of clothes.)
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

7. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018
Bite marks
Ray Krone
The “snaggletooth killer”
convicted-as-snaggletooth-killer-to/
Dentist testified that “only those teeth” could have produced the marks on the body.
DNA showed later a sexual predator living nearby had done it. He was never targeted by police, but later incarcerated for a subsequent similar crime.
Krone served 10 years, 2 on death row.
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

8. What to do with tests that fail?
Suppress evidence that contradicts the theory of the crime…
This is illegal, a violation of Brady v. Maryland.
However, Brady applies to the DA. What if the police investigators, crime lab, or experts just don’t pass on “dry leads” to the DA?
In wrongful conviction cases, in retrospect, there was often tunnel vision. Evidence pointing to other suspects is often overlooked.
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

9. Can your dog smell underwater?
See the Bill Dillon case:
d=3177
Note that the magical dog handler, John Preston, had done hundreds of cases in Florida and Arizona
He worked in over 100 convictions across the country, mostly in Florida.
Florida has refused to reinvestigate his cases, though there were 2 DNA exonerations.
Bill Dillon used to live in Chapel Hill, served 27 years. See his CD: “Black Robes and Lawyers”
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

10. Would you lie on the stand if…
You were facing 3 years in prison for robbery but you had not yet been sentenced, and if you cooperated you’d get 6 months instead?
Your son / friend / cousin / mom / loved one was on probation and the DA said maybe it would help their case if you cooperated?
Your ex-boyfriend had gotten another girl pregnant while you thought he loved you alone, had stolen from you, was a drug dealer, and the police were asking if maybe he was involved in a certain crime.
You needed $250 for your rent / drug habit / light bill / to buy your kids Christmas presents and the crime stoppers hot line offered it if you gave testimony “that led to a conviction”
See the Chapel Hill crime stoppers page: chcunc.org/AboutUs.html
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018

11. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018
Motivated testimony
Jailhouse snitches / informants, oops, jailhouse fabricators
Co-defendants
Think about the Trump investigation
Small fish Michael Flynn seeks to protect his son from prosecution, cooperates with the FBI
FBI can do many things to reduce time served
Motivated testimony is crucial to many crime investigations, especially from co-defendants. One of them needs to “turn state’s evidence” or cooperate with the prosecution. Obviously they want a reduced sentence in return. This is the prisoner’s dilemma.
Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2018