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The Case of Junk Science - Bloodstain Pattern Evidence

📻 Episode #390
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Sep 18, 2023

About This Episode

Bloodstain pattern experts falsely claim that they can identify the culprit of violent crimes by examining the shape and distribution of bloodstains from a crime scene. But, bloodstain pattern evidence has no grounding in any verifiable science. So how did this kind of junk science become admissible?

The Case

Bloodstain pattern experts falsely claim that they can identify the culprit of violent crimes by examining the shape and distribution of bloodstains from a crime scene. But, bloodstain pattern evidence has no grounding in any verifiable science. So how did this kind of junk science become admissible?

Josh Dubin, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, explores bloodstain pattern evidence with Pamela Colloff, senior reporter at ProPublica and staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.

Kate Judson, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, updates Josh Dubin's Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science.

https://cifsjustice.org/donate/

Pamela Coloff’s two part story on the Joe Bryan case Blood Will Tell - ProPublica

Part 1 https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter/mickey-bryan-murder-blood-spatter-forensic-evidence/

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.

00:03:58

“Speaker 2: all of a sudden, chaos the room is filled with people. Speaker 2: A paramedic puts a hand on your shoulder and says, Speaker 2: let us start working here, and pulls you into another room. Speaker 2: Then they tell you what you already know but don't”

00:16:29

“Speaker 2: It all come down to there are a lot of Speaker 2: different ways that blood can get on a surface, and Speaker 2: you can't say definitively which way it happened. Speaker 3: That's exactly right, that's exactly right. The surface that blood Speaker 3: falls onto makes a tremendous difference in what you can tell.”

00:29:05

“Speaker 2: have been a bombshell in the forensic science community and Speaker 2: it really should have changed our court system. I mean, Speaker 2: why do you think it is that you have some Speaker 2: of the leading scientists in the country so critically rebuking Speaker 2: all of these forensic disciplines, but courts don't seem to”

Listen to the Episode

🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms

Resources & links from the episode:

• cifsjustice.org
• cifsjustice.org
• features.propublica.org
• features.propublica.org
• www.ncjrs.gov
• lavaforgood.com

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Also on the podcast: #145 Junk Science - Bite Mark Evidence · #147 Junk Science - Bloodstain Pattern Evidence · #149 Junk Science - Arson Evidence