There are a couple of interesting items in Vol. 224, MIL. L. REV. MILITARY JUSTICE INCOMPETENCE OVER COMPETENCY DETERMINATIONS, by Major David C. Lai. This is relevant to me because I have an appellate case where there are issues with the client’s current competency and there were at trial. ALWAYS…
Working with expert witnesses can be difficult for even the most seasoned attorneys and trial consultants. Oftentimes, egos and expertise can get in the way of an expert’s ability to deliver persuasive testimony, requiring attorneys and trial consultants to be creative when developing solutions that fit both the problem and…
We all laugh at TV shows and movies which we think of as fantasy. The CSI shows, NCIS, JAG, among . We ..get a laugh out of them. But reality may make you cry. Nathan J. Robinson, Forensic Pseudoscience: The Unheralded Crisis of Criminal Justice. Boston Review, November 16, 2015. This past April,…
“[I]t is relatively straightforward for an innocent person’s DNA to be inadvertently transferred to surfaces that he or she has never come into contact with. This could place people at crime scenes that they had never visited or link them to weapons they had never handled.” In discussing United States…
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/299443.php While numerous studies have hailed mindfulness meditation for its potential benefits for the mind and body, new research suggests it may have a negative impact on memory. While mindfulness meditation is believed to be beneficial for the mind and body, researchers say the practice may impair the ability to…
(W)e seem to be on an endless quest to unmask the deceiver. This is easier said than done. The research is surprising. Even the professionals aren’t very good at catching people in a lie. When we do catch a lie, it’s often not for the reasons you may expect. There…
We do a lot of military sexual assault cases with alcohol involved. It is not unusual for a complaining witness to claim they were drunk, blacked out and didn’t consent. First, if blacked out they can’t know they didn’t consent–it’s impossible if they were blacked out, rather than them exhibiting a…
The Washington Post has a report today: The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. Of 28…
The Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals recently, in United States v. D.W.B., __ M.J. ___ (N-M Ct. Crim. App. 2015), had to decide “a complex and controversial topic: the admissibility of a witness’s testimony regarding memories recovered through a psychotherapeutic approach known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).” …
It has been some time since I’ve had a case where it was necessary to have “cell tower” evidence to “locate” the client. Here is an interesting piece in The New Yorker. On May 28th, Lisa Marie Roberts, of Portland, Oregon, was released from prison after serving nine and a…