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The Case of Junk Science - Arson Evidence
📻 Episode #392
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Sep 25, 2023
About This Episode
Built on a foundation of conjecture and best guesses that were never adequately tested according to any valid scientific principles, arson evidence experts have been telling juries for decades that one can definitively determine that a fire was intentionally set is completely wrong.
The Case
Built on a foundation of conjecture and best guesses that were never adequately tested according to any valid scientific principles, arson evidence experts have been telling juries for decades that one can definitively determine that a fire was intentionally set is completely wrong.
But why, after generations of experts have all been proven wrong, is there still an unwillingness to change? Barry Scheck, Co-Founder of the Innocence Project, discusses Arson Evidence with Josh.
Kate Judson, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, updates Josh Dubin's Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science.
https://cifsjustice.org/donate/
2009 Article in The New Yorker by David Grann
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/trial-by-fire
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:03:53“Speaker 2: to hold you back. They find your two year old Speaker 2: in the bedroom on the floor. You didn't realize she Speaker 2: had been there, right there. Your babies are on the Speaker 2: floor of their room where you had left them with Speaker 2: their bottles. You had been so close to finding them.”
00:17:38“Speaker 2: Willingham case was bogus. The first was the Lime Street Speaker 2: case in nineteen ninety, which was the case of Gerald Speaker 2: Wayne Lewis. Mister Lewis was accused of killing his pregnant wife, Speaker 2: his sister, and his sister's four children by arson. Now Speaker 2: Gerald always maintained his innocence, but it was actually a”
00:30:26“Speaker 3: punishment and forensic science. I think we look we've made Speaker 3: a lot of progress, but we still haven't corrected the Speaker 3: biggest injustice of all, and that is the wrongful execution Speaker 3: of Cameron Todd Willingham. Do you see the suffering up Speaker 3: to the very very end and the execution of an”
Listen to the Episode
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← #391 George Toca #393 Patrick Brown →
Also on the podcast: #145 Junk Science - Bite Mark Evidence · #147 Junk Science - Bloodstain Pattern Evidence · #149 Junk Science - Arson Evidence