Wrongful Convictions Based on Junk Science

Malcolm Bryant: Exonerated by DNA On the evening of November 20, 1998, 17-year-old Tyeisha Powell and 16-year-old Toni Bullock were confronted by a man carrying a knife. They were dragged into a vacant lot in Baltimore, Maryland and Bullock was stabbed to death. Powell managed to escape and later gave police a description of her attacker. She only saw him briefly and other factors such as poor visibility in the rain and evening made it hard for her to give an adequate description. A week later with no leads, police receive a phone call from members of the victim’s family saying a man resembling the sketch was just released from jail. Bryant was picked up and immediately put in a photo lineup where Powell identified him as the attacker. Bryant was charged with first-degree murder, even though witnesses placed him at a nightclub at the time of the crime. Bryant was sentenced to life in prison in 1999. Over the years, Bryant filed motions only to be dismissed and until 2009, ...

DNA Comparison There’s always that one scene in crime show thrillers—the one where the the lab technician in a white lab coat nails the killer by extracting or finding the smallest amount of evidence through DNA. Blockbusters also seem to do the same thing. The witty, nerdy, and attractive lab tech turns around evidence in a short matter of time and the there’s almost always a happy ending.  Crime > Investigation > Trial. The story line remains relatively the same. Seems quite simple on the big screen, but in fact these types of scenarios Hollywood perpetuates for their audience actually causes more problems than solutions. DNA evidence is often not found in most cases and without DNA, most jurors are hung because they lack this “gold standard” of evidence they see quite often on television. DNA also puts away innocent individuals and costs people their livelihoods. DNA has become the golden standard of all forensic sciences in the twentieth century but even sci...

Improper Forensic Science Gilbert Alejandro The Crime In 1990 in Ulvade County, Texas a woman was pushed into her own apartment and aggressively sexually assaulted. She was placed face down with a pillow over her head and threatened with death if she screamed for help, she was raped. The victim described her attacker as a Hispanic male that was about six feet tall and wearing a white cap (Gilbert Alejandro). The Investigation   Throughout the investigation the police questioned a man that was wearing similar clothes to that description but no arrests were made. Through a DNA examination of sperm left on the victim's clothing, Gilbert Alejandro was identified (Gilbert Alejandro). The victim failed to identify Alejandro in several photo lineups, but made one identification in a sketch lineup which lead to a positive identification in a live lineup. The Trial During the trial the most convincing evidence was the DNA test. Forensic Scientist Fred Zain co...

Poor Training Forensic Scientists Who are Forensic Scientists? Forensic science is the gathering, identification, research, scientific interpretation and its presentation to the criminal justice system. Forensic scientists are those who specialize in this field and carry out these sciences to investigate and resolve criminal acts. There are three different types of forensic sciences: forensic hard sciences, forensic social sciences, and forensic practices. A forensic hard science is based out of a laboratory and includes criminalistics and anthropology. Forensic social sciences includes psychology and linguistics. And finally forensic practices are accounting and computer/digital forensics. Forensic scientists are not general scientists, meaning they are not proficient in every field of forensic science, but they are specialists and usually only practice one aspect of forensics. Forensic science laboratories are usually operated out of law enforcement agencies ...