Crime & Clues

by D. H. Garrison, Jr.
Forensic Services Unit
Grand Rapids Police Department
Grand Rapids, Michigan

This Article Originally Appeared in the MAFS Newsletter, October 1991.

Forensic science is the product of an uneasy and unholy mating of Science, the objective seeker of truth and knowledge, and Forensics, the argumentative persuader of courtroom advocacy. It is not called Justice Science, Law Science, or Truth Science, as many of us would like to imagine. We are a bastard child, an orphan, but still the subject of an intense child custody battle between our estranged parents, the truth seeker and the advocate. The tug-of-war goes on daily for our loyalties and confidences, each side offering candy and warm hugs. These separated parents have visitation rights. Sometimes they take our brothers and sisters away. Sometimes they don't come back.

We in forensic science like to think of ourselves as our mother's child--Mother Science, pure and incorruptible--and most of us start out this way. Some of us remain pure. Some grow up to be delinquents. The advocacy half of forensic science will not go away; it has weekday visitation rights and the power-of-subpoena. It has advocate friends called prosecutors, attorneys, cops, the press, and the Government. The advocates rarely understand the appeal of Mother Science, cannot fathom a search for truth in a game plan which calls for scores and trophies. They are constantly trying to persuade us to see it their way, to compromise, to bend just a little. They don't realize it, but what the advocates are asking for is Bad Science.

This article originally appeared in Minutiae, the Lightning Powder Co. Newsletter, #44, Sep-Oct 1997

When offering testimony as an expert witness, regardless of the witness' discipline, five distinct topic areas must be covered. These five areas are the witness' qualifications, the science practiced by the witness, the introduction and chain of custody of the evidence, the analysis or examination process, and the expert's opinion. By adequately covering each area in sequence, the witness will five the judge or jury all of the information necessary to understand the opinion presented.

The first area of testimony should always be the witness' qualifications. There are three ways to prove you are qualified. The first is by explaining the training you have had. Include formal education, such as college, as well as specialized classes in the science completed. The second way of proving your qualifications is through experience. Talk about how many years you have been doing the job, or how many cases you have examined. The third way of proving your expertise is through explaining how you have been tested and found competent. There are several ways you may have been tested. A test for certification in your field is one. Annual proficiency testing by your lab is another. Previous testimony itself is a way of showing that you have been found competent by the courts.