Case Report

In a remarkable capital murder case earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court, by an 8-to-1 vote, tossed out the expert testimony of Steven Hayne. The defendant was Tyler Edmonds, a 13-year-old boy accused of killing his sister’s husband. Hayne, Mississippi’s quasi-official state medical examiner, had testified that the victim’s bullet wounds supported the prosecution’s theory that Edmonds and his sister had shot the man together, each putting a hand on the weapon and pulling the trigger at the same time.
“I would favor that a second party be involved in that positioning of the weapon,” Hayne told the jury. “It would be consistent with two people involved. I can’t exclude one, but I think that would be less likely.”
Testifying that you can tell from an autopsy how many hands were on the gun that fired a bullet is like saying you can tell the color of a killer’s eyes from a series of stab wounds. It’s absurd. The Mississippi Supreme Court said Hayne’s testimony was “scientifically unfounded” and should not have been admitted. Based on this and other errors, it ordered a new trial for Edmonds.
But it wasn’t the doctor’s dubious claim that made the case unusual. It’s the fact that the court explicitly renounced his testimony. It was the first time that had happened to Hayne in hundreds of cases dating back nearly 20 years.
By any sane standard, the decision was long overdue. Hayne’s career in court is an egregious example of what happens when the criminal justice system fails to adequately oversee expert testimony. He may be unusually careless, but he is not unique—not in Mississippi, and not in the United States.

microscopes

Optical microscope, through their use of visible wavelengths of light, are the simplest and hence most widely used type of microscope.
Optical microscopes use refractive lenses of glass or plastic or quartz, to focus light into the eye or another light detector. Mirror-based optical microscopes operate in the same manner. Typical magnification of a light microscope, visible range light, is up to 1500x with a resolution limit of around 0.2 microns or 200 nanometers. Specialized techniques (e.g., scanning confocal microscopy) may exceed this magnification but the resolution is diffraction limited.

chromatography

Chromatography is a way to discover what something is made of. Every thing around us is made of chemicals. Using chromatography, these chemicals are seperated by the weight of the molecules which then show up as a "blip" on a computer screen. Since the csi team know the weight of all chemicals, then they know what each of the chemicals are in the test sample. These machines are used on CSI to study things found at crime scenes, by companies who make medicine to discover new substances and by criminals who try to find out how a competitor makes something.

dna finger prints

DNA finger prints

Anyone can be identified by examination of DNA sequences unique to that person. Identifying individuals within humans is less accurate at this time.

To identify individuals, forensic scientists scan 13 DNA regions, or loci, that vary from person to person and use the data to create a DNA fingerprint of that individual .There is an extremely small chance that another person has the same DNA profile for a particular set of 13 regions.


Some Examples of DNA Uses for Forensic Identification

Identify potential suspects whose DNA may match evidence left at crime scenes
Exonerate persons wrongly accused of crimes
Identify crime and catastrophe victims
Establish paternity and other family relationships
Identify endangered and protected species as an aid to wildlife officials (could be used for prosecuting poachers)
Detect bacteria and other organisms that may pollute air, water, soil, and food
Match organ donors with recipients in transplant programs
Determine pedigree for seed or livestock breeds
Authenticate consumables such as caviar and wine

blood types

blood types

there are 8 diffrent types of blood in the world they are o-, o+, a+, a-, b+, b- & the rarest rypes of blood are ab- & ab+. they can be useful in many ways knowing someones blood type because they can get blood transfusions or if some ones blood is found at a crime scene they just have to find which blood type then find a know killer etc...

Finger Prints

Fingerprint ridges are formed during the third to fourth month of fetal development. The ridges begin to develop on the skin of the thumbs and fingers.No two prints have ever been found to be exactly alike. Even those of identical twins are different.Fingerprints are not inherited. The general pattern may be the same in families but the level 2 and 3 details will differ.