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Full-Text Articles in Law
Junk Science And The Execution Of An Innocent Man, Paul C. Giannelli
Junk Science And The Execution Of An Innocent Man, Paul C. Giannelli
Faculty Publications
Cameron Todd Willingham was tried and executed for the arson deaths of his three little girls. The expert testimony offered against him to establish arson was junk science.
The case has since become infamous, the subject of an award-winning New Yorker article, numerous newspaper accounts, and several television shows. It also became enmeshed in the death penalty debate and the reelection of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who refused to grant a stay of execution after a noted arson expert submitted a report debunking the “science” offered at Willingham’s trial. The governor then attempted to derail an investigation by the Texas …
Wrongful Convictions And Forensic Science: The Need To Regulate Crime Labs, Paul C. Giannelli
Wrongful Convictions And Forensic Science: The Need To Regulate Crime Labs, Paul C. Giannelli
Faculty Publications
DNA testing has exonerated over 200 convicts, some of whom were on death row. Studies show that a substantial number of these miscarriages of justice involved scientific fraud or junk science. This article documents the failures of crime labs and some forensic techniques, such as microscopic hair comparison and bullet lead analysis. Some cases involved incompetence and sloppy procedures, while others entailed deceit, but the extent of the derelictions - the number of episodes and the duration of some of the abuses, covering decades in several instances - demonstrates that the problems are systemic.
Paradoxically, the most scientifically sound procedure …