“Failed Evidence” Discussions in Cincinnati, April 4 and 5

On Thursday April 4, and Friday April 5, I’ll be in Cincinnati for two discussions of Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science (2012).  Both are free and open to the public.

On April 4, I’ll be discussing the book at 7:00 p.m. at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3711 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati OH 43220.  The event is sponsored by the ACLU of Ohio.

On April 5, I’ll present at talk at the University of Cincinnati College of Law at noon.  The address is  2540 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45221.  The event is in Room 114.  The event is sponsored by the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project.  The event has been approved for CLE credit for attorneys.

Science Magazine’s Review of Failed Evidence

The current issue of Science magazine contains a review of Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science (NYU Press, 2012).  Here is a brief excerpt from the review:

Although science has long been recognized as our most reliable pathway to truth, people are sometimes reluctant to accept scientific evidence, particularly when it challenges established practices or cherished beliefs. In Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science, David A. Harris accuses police and prosecutors of unwarranted skepticism toward science and tries to explain their perspective. His provocative book will interest those concerned broadly with rejection of science as well as those interested in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Oregon Supreme Court: On Eyewitness IDs, Law Enforcement Must Follow the Science

A decision by Oregon’s Supreme Court on eyewitness identification procedures has re-set the way that juries and courts in that state will think about eyewitness identification.

According to the New York Times editorial on the case, the ruling shifts the burden of proof to prosecutors to prove that eyewitness identifications are reliable before they can be admitted in court.  Before last week’s decision, the rule had been that identifications were generally admitted; it was up to the defense in individual cases to prove that an identification was not reliable.

But at least as important as the new rule itself was the reason that the Oregon court abandoned its old precedent:  the court had concluded that the old rule was based on assumptions about eyewitness testimony no longer supported by the science.  Thus the new case represents a textbook case of a court forcing law enforcement away from the failed evidence of discredited methods, and toward methods that accord with what science teaches us now.

Under the old rule, Oregon judges looked at five factors when evaluating an eyewitness identification: opportunity to view the alleged perpetrator, attention to identifying features, timing and completeness of description given after the event, certainty of description and identification by witness, and lapse of time between original observation and the subsequent identification.  Looking at these factors from the vantage point of the present day, the Oregon court found them “incomplete and, at times, inconsistent with modern scientific findings.”  Given the science on eyewitness identification that is by now well established, the court prescribed a new approach, including the change in the burden of proof.

That’s what the Oregon Supreme Court did, but here is why they did it:

…[W]e believe that it is imperative that law enforcement, the bench, and the bar be informed of the existence of current scientific research and literature regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification because, as an evidentiary matter, the reliability of eyewitness identification is central to a criminal justice system dedicated to the dual principles of accountability and fairness.

It’s hard to imagine a better summing up of the ideas behind Failed Evidence, and why the fight to overcome law enforcement’s general resistance to science is so important.

Failed Evidence Is Featured on Jurist

This week, Jurist, a national and international legal reporting website, is featuring my commentary on Failed Evidence.   Here’s a quick sample:

[The] image of a deep alliance between police work and modern science is misleading at best. With the exception of DNA work and certain kinds of classic chemical analysis, law enforcement generally does not embrace existing scientific work. In fact, police and prosecutors in the US resist science. The scientific work I am referring to involves the testing of the more traditional techniques of law enforcement investigation and prosecution: not the high-tech sheen of the DNA lab, but scientific testing of eyewitness identification, the interrogation of suspects and the more traditional forensic methods such as fingerprint identification. This is the daily bread and butter of law enforcement, and scientists have found it wanting. The science on these basic police investigation methods has existed for years — some of it for decades. It is rigorous, and has undergone peer review, publication and replication. It tells us what the problems with traditional police work are, and also gives us some straightforward ways of solving these problems. Yet, most — not all, to be sure, but most — of American law enforcement continues to resist this science and refuses to change its basic tactics to reflect the best of what science has to offer.

Jurist mixes straight reporting and commentary from the U.S. and around the world; it’s a great source for anyone interested in issues of justice and how it plays out in domestic and international situations around the world.  (Full disclosure: Jurist is supported by my own institution, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and has been guided and run since the beginning by my esteemed colleague, Professor Bernard Hibbitts.)  Check it out.

Law Enforcement Embracing Science in the Jane Doe Case: Why?

Yesterday, I wrote about the November 13 article in the New York Times that described how police had turned to sophisticated science involving isotope analysis to determine the geographic origin of corpses.  The article focused on the case of a Jane Doe in a 41-year-old murder case in Florida.  The science is fascinating; it allows the authorities to pinpoint where the victim came from with startling precision.  The Jane Doe in Florida, who had been thought to be a white or Native American woman from North America, grew up in Greece and had probably been in the U.S. for less than a year.

Why, I asked, had law enforcement so heartily embraced the science that could do this work,  even as most of law enforcement continues to ignore or resist more basic science on traditional methods of investigation, like eyewitness identification, interrogation of suspects, and old-school forensics?  Here are a few possible reasons:

1) In the Jane Doe case and the others discussed, there was no real alternative.  The cases were old, and most ways of investigating that could be tried had been tried, with no results.

2) The colder a serious case gets,the more likely that police will be open to trying new or untested approaches.

3) The type of science used — hard science, chemical analysis, very traditional sorts of science work — is appealing, in a way that the sorter science challenging eyewitness identification, for instance, is not.

4) The science described in the article does not challenge what police already do and believe in.  Therefore, it does not disrupt the status quo or challenge existing ideas about police expertise, while science about eyewitness identification, interrogation and traditional forensics challenges those things very directly.

My gut is that answers 1) and 4) probably do the most to explain what we see here.  What do you think?

Eyewitness identification and Other Failed Evidence Issues on Minnesota Public Radio

In connection with my talk today, Nov. 8, on Failed Evidence at the University of Minnesota Law School, I’ve been interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio.  The interview is posted today as part of The Daily Circuit program. You can get to it here.

Where is Minnesota on Failed Evidence? Part 2 — Today’s Star Tribune

In connection with my talk on Failed Evidence at U. Minnesota Law School Thursday, Nov. 8, take a look at my Commentary piece in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, “In Some Areas, Law Enforcement Still Resists Science.”  Here’s a sample:

Everywhere you look, law enforcement and science seem to have formed a partnership. Look at the headlines on any given day, and there’s something like “DNA convicts killer in 1992 cold case.” Turn on the television, and there are the police in “CSI” and its innumerable clones solving cases with high-tech gadgets and test tubes and computers. The message is clear: The bad guys don’t stand a chance against the police officer and the scientists working together.

There is some truth to this: DNA has become an identification tool of unequaled power. But look beyond DNA, and you’ll see something different: When the science concerns eyewitness identification, suspect interrogations, or more traditional, non-DNA forensic testing, law enforcement doesn’t embrace science. Most police agencies and prosecutor’s offices in the United States actively resist the scientific findings on these common types of police investigation.

Failed Evidence on WYPR Public Radio’s “Midday” Program

I was a guest on WYPR Public Radio’s “Midday” program today, discussing Failed Evidence.  Today was the monthly “Midday on Science” show, and host Dan Rodicks and regular science contributor John Monahan asked great questions on everything from DNA to more traditional forensic sciences to eyewitness identification and false confessions.  Listeners asked terrific questions too.

You can hear the whole show by clicking here and clicking on the audio button.

Failed Evidence in NY: Today, Sept. 20, 5:30 p.m. at John Jay College, NYC

Today, September 20, at 5:30 p.m., I’ll discuss Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science (NYU Press) at an author’s talk and panel discussion in New York City at John Jay College of Criminal Justice today, September 20, at 5:30 p.m.  Full details are here.  The talk is free and open to the public.  The talk will be followed by a panel discussion by four members of John Jay’s faculty:  Margaret Bull Kovera (Psychology), Nicholas D. K. Petraco (Forensics and statistics), Lawrence Kobilinsky (Forensics and DNA), and Eugene O’Donnell (Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration). The panel will be moderated by Zachary Carter, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Failed Evidence: Published Today

Today Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science is published by NYU Press.  I’ll present a discussion of the book, followed by commentary from a panel of local officials, today at the University of Pittsburgh  School of Law, 3900 Forbes Ave. (Forbes and Bouquet), Pittsburgh, at 5 pm.   The event is free and open to the public.  Events will follow over the coming two months in New York City (Sept. 20), Washington DC (Oct. 3), Baltimore (Oct. 4), Boston (Oct. 24 and 25), Minneapolis (Nov. 1), and Toledo (Nov. 7).  Details for the events can be found on the events page.

WESA FM, Pittsburgh’s Public Radio station, did an interview with me about the book; you can find the audio file here.

This morning the Pittsburgh City Paper, our local alt weekly, ran a long feature story on the book.  Here’s a sample:

Failed Evidence argues that reforms will “benefit not only innocent persons … but also those police and prosecutors.” Recording an interrogation, Harris says, can also prevent a defense attorney from making jurors believe a confession was coerced.

It’s not an easy case to make. Back in 2011, a state panel on wrongful convictions urged that interrogations be recorded, among other reforms. But dissenters argued that police needed “flexibility” to devise their own rules.  Harris says…”My pitch has been that these reforms do good things for you.” But often police “just disregard it.”

…”We’ll never have a perfect system,” Harris allows. But if obvious problems go unsolved, trust in the law itself erodes, and everyone suffers.

“With the justice system,” Harris says, “we’re all in it together.”

You can read the City Paper article here.

You can purchase the book here.