Forensic Expert Testification in a Case

Forensic Expert Testification in a Case

 OVERVIEW:-

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old. Following an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived within two minutes of a gunshot during an altercation in which Zimmerman fatally shot Martin, who did not have any weapons. Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours. The police chief said that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest. The police chief also said that Zimmerman had had a right to defend himself with lethal force. As news of the case spread, thousands of protestors across the country called for Zimmerman's arrest and a full investigation. 

'Medical tests should be more sensitive to rape victims'

TNN

MUMBAI: Going strictly by textbooks on forensic medicine, doctors should be suspicious of any well-built woman who claims to have been raped. According to the textbooks, "a well-built woman cannot be raped", "most cases are false", and "a working class woman cannot be raped as she can offer resistance".

Experts say the existing protocols of medical examination of a sexual assault victim place undue emphasis on injury documentation that looks for signs of resistance on the victim's body, examination of hymen, assessment of virginity and two-finger test to determine the size and laxity of vaginal opening, rather than the health problems the victim may suffer from.

Padma Deosthali, coordinator of the Centre for Enquiry into Health & Allied Themes (CEHAT), an organization which has been working with sexual assault victims, said the medical examinations are part of the whole process which have to be carried out to prove whether the crime was committed. However, many parts of this exercise are not in touch with the reality and circumstances of the victim.

"The body swabs, for instance, would test positive only if there has been forced peno-vaginal intercourse with ejaculation.

DNA tests cannot distinguish identical twins on rape charge

Aftab Asghar (left) and Mohammed Asghar (right) were arrested after DNA evidence taken from the scene linked the alleged crime with one or both of them. Photo: INS NEWS AGENCY

By Rosa Silverman and agencies (The Telegraph)
12:48PM BST 20 Aug 2013

Prosecutors charged both Mohammed and Aftab Asghar but said it may be "that only one of the defendants faces trial."

The pair, aged 22, were expected to enter pleas when they appeared alongside each other in the dock at Reading Crown Court, Berks.

But police and the Crown Prosecution Service are still trying to determine whether they should continue to pursue the case against both men, and prosecutor Sandra Beck requested more time for the Crown to pursue particular lines of inquiry.

Body of evidence: A radical approach to forensic pathology (Virtopsy)

Virtual cadavers, needle-wielding robots – and not a scalpel in sight. Laura Spinney meets the research team behind the 'virtopsy', a radical approach to forensic pathology

Backing his four-by-four into his garage one night in 2006, after returning from a drunken party in the Swiss canton of Bern, a man crushed his wife against the garage's rear wall.

He called an ambulance, but she died before it reached the hospital. The man claimed it was a tragic accident – he had reversed once and hadn't seen what he was doing – and to the police it looked like a case of involuntary manslaughter. But just to be sure, they asked Michael Thali, director of the University of Bern's Institute of Forensic Medicine, for a second opinion.
Prof Thali and his team carried out an autopsy on the woman, but not the kind we're used to seeing in television shows such as CSI and countless police dramas. This was a scalpel-free, virtual autopsy, or "virtopsy" – a radical new approach to forensic investigation, in which Professor Thali is one of the pioneers.

What forensics can say about Syria chemical attack

The calls are getting louder. Even Russia, Syria's main ally, is now urging the Syrian government to allow weapons inspectors to investigate the site of Wednesday's alleged chemical attack on the suburbs of Damascus, held by rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad's regime. This brings Russia in line with the US and the 36 other countries that yesterday called for a swift investigation into the apparent deaths of over 1000 men, women and children.