Episode 27: Junk Forensic Science

Justice In America

The Appeal

News, Politics, Prison, Law, Criminal, Justice, Jail, History, Education, Incarceration, America

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2020

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everyone who has ever watched a crime procedural believes that forensic science is the most reliable way to tell whether someone is guilty or not. But is that true? The reality is that a lot of forensic science is not exactly science at all. On this episode of Justice in America, Josie Duffy Rice and her guest co-host, Zak Cheney Rice, look at faulty forensic science. Radley Balko, opinion journalist at the Washington Post and author of The Cadaver and the Country Dentist, joins.

For show notes and more information visit theappeal.org.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When a crime lab analysts, your end review is done by a prosecutor, that's a huge problem.
0:11.6	There's a study that came out a few years ago that found I think in 14-15 states and then dozens of cities
0:16.8	Crime Labs are only paid when there's a conviction. If you're acquitted you don't have to pay any court fines if you're convicted you have to pay for the analysis of the crime led it
0:26.0	Well think about what incentive that sentence to be working the crime lab if I quit this person
0:30.4	There's no money that's going to come into our office for this case.
0:33.2	If I convict them, that's six, seven hundred dollars, it adds up, you know, after a while,
0:37.8	particularly if you feel like your lab's underfunded. Hi, I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And I'm Zach Cheney Rice.
0:52.8	And this is Justice in America.
0:55.2	Each show we discuss a topic in the American criminal justice system and we try to explain what
0:59.6	it is and how it works.
1:01.6	Thank you so much everyone for joining us today.
1:03.4	You could find us on Twitter at Justice Underscore Podcast.
1:06.6	We're also on Facebook at Justice in America and subscribe and rate us on Apple
1:11.1	Podcasts. We'd love to hear from you.
1:13.4	So we open the show with a clip from our guest, Radley Balco.
1:17.7	Radley is a journalist and an author.
1:20.6	He writes about criminal justice for the Washington Post and his latest book the Kadavr King and the country dentist is a really incredible story that is completely outrageous that deals with our topic for today which is
1:34.7	junk science and the failure of forensics and if you're at all new to this topic I
1:39.7	promise you're in for some surprises so today we're not going to have a word of the day
1:44.5	because this whole episode is about an entire field of criminal justice
1:48.0	that is almost entirely misunderstood.
1:51.0	And that field is forensic science. If you're like many people in
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Appeal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Appeal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.