Contextual Contamination of Forensic Evidence by Post-Conviction Litigators (2009)
ABSTRACT
This paper expands on research reported by the authors in a 2009 article titled “The Wrongful Conviction of Forensic Science.” Since that study, which was published in Forensic Science Policy & Management, additional convictions have been overturned as the result of post-conviction litigation and the use of DNA evidence. Since 1989, over 230 convictions have been overturned. Representatives in the innocence network continue to work diligently to identify wrongfully convicted prisoners and secure their immediate release.
The authors argue, however, that the intense activism surrounding post-conviction litigation introduces a potentially catastrophic form of contamination to post-conviction proceedings. The authors refer to this phenomenon as contextual contamination, which is the misapplication of circumstantial information during the legal and judicial interpretation of scientific findings. Because DNA exonerations, as they are commonly called, often occur so long after the original crimes were committed, newly acquired scientific findings, however accurate or valid they may be, can be improperly applied by litigators and judges who fail to consider the full significance and probative value of the forensic evidence.
From the perspective of the forensic science community, contextual contamination has also caused a serious problem outside of the courtroom. An energetic and persistent public policy campaign has been fueled by post-conviction litigation activists who blame faulty forensic science for being a leading cause of wrongful convictions. In this paper, the authors will provide a historical background for this campaign and demonstrate through actual case studies how serious the threat of contextual contamination is to the American criminal justice system and the safety of the public.
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