Autopsy of a Crime Lab: The Reliability of Forensic Evidence
CLE Credit: Up to 1 hour of self-study CLE credit. Please confirm with your state's CLE commission to ensure this program is available for self-study CLE certification.
Program Summary: In this presentation, noted legal expert Brandon Garrett, the author of "Autopsy of a Crime Lab: Exposing the Flaws in Forensics", exposes the dangerously imperfect forensic evidence that law enforcement and prosecutors rely on to attain criminal convictions. This powerful presentation catalogues the common sources of error and faulty science behind a multitude of well-known forensic evidence types, from fingerprints and firearms to forensic algorithms and DNA findings.
You'll uncover the importance of reliability and error rates (including false positive, negative and inconclusive errors), proficiency and blind testing, cognitive bias influences, standards for quality control and audit processes in crime labs, high profile examples of wrongful convictions that resulted from forensic errors, and more. Venture into the lives of the wrongly convicted or nearly convicted, into crime labs rocked by scandal, and onto the front lines of promising reform efforts. This in-depth presentation will illustrate the persistence of junk science and its well-meaning practitioners.
Watch a Sample Here: https://youtu.be/ykQ9HJAxSdk
About the Speaker: Brandon L. Garrett, L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law, Duke University, Director, Wilson Center for Science and Justice.
Brandon L. Garret, a leading scholar of criminal justice outcomes, evidence, and constitutional rights, is the inaugural L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, an initiative that brings together faculty and students to improve criminal justice outcomes.
Garrett’s current research and teaching interests focus on evidence, forensic science, constitutional rights, habeas corpus, corporate crime, and criminal law. He is the author of six books: Autopsy of a Crime Lab: Exposing the Flaws in Forensics (University of California Press, March 2021); The Death Penalty: Concepts and Insights (West Academic, 2018) (with Lee Kovarsky); End of its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice (Harvard University Press, 2017); Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations (Harvard University Press, 2014); Federal Habeas Corpus: Executive Detention and Post-Conviction Litigation (Foundation Press, 2013) (with Lee Kovarsky); and Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong (Harvard University Press, 2011). These books have been translated for editions in China, Spain, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
Prices
- List Price $45.00
- Member Price $35.00