Garrett L. Brandon
Autopsy of a Crime Lab
Forensic analysis is perhaps best known through its fictional portrayals in crime novels and television courtroom dramas: A crime occurs, law enforcement gathers evidence from the scene, and a team of dedicated forensic analysts interrogate that evidence in a crime lab using cutting-edge scientific methods. Potential suspects get fingerprinted, an identifying “match” gets made with the help of government databases, and judges allow prosecutors to introduce the unbiased testimony of proven experts in the field who trot out their damning, seemingly incontrovertible forensic conclusions to an attentive jury.
Autopsy of a Crime Lab exposes some of the most common misconceptions about forensic analysis and examines their collective impact on the criminal justice system. Through detailed examinations of the forensic failures responsible for the wrongful convictions of exonerees, the book categorizes the errors made by forensic “experts,” identifies how and why these mistakes continue to occur, and argues forcefully for a comprehensive, science-based, multi-pronged approach to restore integrity to the essential discipline of forensics.
I decided to become a law professor because of my work representing exonerees who had been wrongly convicted, including based on false bitemark, hair comparison, and blood typing evidence. Their bravery and resilience inspired me, and I wanted to work to make sure that our criminal legal system and our scientific institutions never let us down so terribly ever again.
Editor: Judi Pajo
Autopsy of a Crime Lab
Brandon L. Garrett Autopsy of a Crime Lab: Exposing the Flaws in Forensics University of California Press 264 pages, 6 x 9 inches ISBN 9780520389656
Available here →March 29, 2023
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Garrett L. Brandon
Brandon L. Garrett is the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law and White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Law. His research and teaching interests include constitutional law, civil rights, criminal law and procedure, and habeas corpus. Garrett’s work, which includes several books and numerous articles, has been widely cited by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal courts, state supreme courts, and courts in other countries.
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Fingerprints, bitemarks, firearms and hair analysis have never had their founding premises validated, so an expert's 100-percent identification is unsupportable.
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