FBI and DOJ vow to continue using junk science rejected by White House Report
ALTHOUGH A REPORT released this week by the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concludes that there is scant scientific underpinning to a number of forensic practices that have been used, for years, to convict thousands of individuals in criminal cases, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that it will ignore the reports recommendations while the FBI has blasted the report as erroneous and overbroad.
The report, titled Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods, concludes that a number of common, pattern-matching forensic disciplines bite mark analysis, fingerprint and firearm comparison, shoe tread analysis, and complex DNA mixture analysis need additional support to be deemed scientifically valid and reliable a conclusion in line with that reached in the groundbreaking 2009 report on forensics issued by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council.
In a statement reported by the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that the agency remains confident that, when used properly, forensic science evidence helps juries identify the guilty and clear the innocent, and the department believes that the current legal standards regarding the admissibility of forensic evidence are based on sound science and sound legal reasoning. As such, she said, while we appreciate their contribution to the field of scientific inquiry, the department will not be adopting the recommendations related to the admissibility of forensic science evidence.
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/23/fbi-and-doj-vow-to-continue-using-junk-science-rejected-by-white-house-report/
GeorgeGist
(25,294 posts)Foggyhill
(1,060 posts)So, maybe it just means most people, put agenda, feeling, whatever before science or use science when its convenient and dismiss it/manipulate it when it doesn't suit those entrenched biases (view of GMO vs Global Warming) by the same groups.