CRIM 356 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Marion Merrell Dow, Forensic Pathology, Forensic Anthropology
29 Nov 2017
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Forensics: the application of science to the law; involves many different branches of science; it is an extreme e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple of a(cid:374) (cid:862)applied scie(cid:374)ce(cid:863) Daubert vs. merrell dow pharmaceuticals (aka the daubert ruling) Mother of jason daubert sued merrell dow subsidiary. In 1974 he was born with 2 fingers on right hand and a bone missing in his arm. Claimed this was due to anti-nausea drug: bendectin. Prosecution presented evidence supporting birth defect link based on animal testing results. Defence expert epidemiologist claimed that no human evidence existed to support birth defect link. Reason: evidence not based on epidemiological research & thus considered scientifically unsound. Impact: resulted in many established forensic techniques to come into serious question as to their legiti(cid:373)ac(cid:455) as (cid:862)scie(cid:374)tific(cid:863) (cid:373)ethods. Same premise: trace evidence fail/pass, forensic pathology fails, questioned documents not considered a science. Two main narratives: life history, death history. The isotopes: (cid:1005)(cid:1007)c/(cid:1005)(cid:1006)c e(cid:454)pressed as (cid:1005)(cid:1007)c (cid:1005)(cid:1009)n/(cid:1005)(cid:1008)n e(cid:454)pressed as (cid:1005)(cid:1009)n (cid:1005)8o/(cid:1005)(cid:1010)o e(cid:454)pressed (cid:1005)8o.
