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Rick Casey Revisits the Forensic Science Commission

By Steve Hall

"Science defeats DA 8-0," is the title of his column in today's Houston Chronicle.Here's the triumphant score from Friday's Texas Forensic Science Commission: Science 8, District Attorney 0.The battle was for the scientific soul of the commission. Chairman and Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley had distributed a "memorandum on jurisdiction" that concluded the Legislature authorized the commission to investigate only complaints involving crime labs accredited by the Department of Public Safety. This would exclude the controversial case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed for the arson murder of his two young children based on allegedly bad science.In other words, Bradley was asking the members of the commission, seven of whom are scientists, to give up most of their power to investigate the questionable use of police science in Texas...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 26, 2010 (boomark / email).