#248

Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System

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M. Chris Fabricant, Director of Strategic Litigation for the Innocence Project & expert on forensic science and the US criminal justice system, chats with Trey Elling about JUNK SCIENCE AND THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. Topics include::

  • The birth of junk science as a jury-swaying courtroom tool (2:22)
  • ‘Peer reviewed’ as a misunderstood term regarding science (10:33)
  • An early 1990s US Supreme Court case favoring Dow Pharmaceuticals helping with the awakening on junk science (19:55)
  • The challenge of swaying those whose careers have been built on a belief in junk science (26:14)
  • The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) uncovering major flaws with the most popular forensic sciences in 2006 (29:38)
  • Debunking the uniqueness and certainty of fingerprints (35:56)
  • How it went when the NAS revealed its findings at the annual American Academy of Forensic Science meeting in 2009 (42:59)
  • Michael West as an especially belligerent example of dental junk science (47:32)
  • Unindicted co-ejaculator theories (52:28)
  • The importance of Steven Mark Chaney’s story (55:00)