Under the Microscope – Ellen Greytak
The ISHI 26 agenda is already filling up with some great talks from amazing speakers! While the forensic community is a tight-knit group, we can always get a little closer, right? With that in mind, we asked our speakers some questions to get to know them a little better outside of their work. We’ll be […]
An Interview with Tim Palmbach
Professor Tim Palmbach of The University of New Haven describes a project he started to combat human trafficking using DNA. TRANSCRIPT: My name’s Professor Tim Palmbach, and I’m a professor at the University of New Haven. Before that, I was the crime lab director at the State of Connecticut. About two years ago, […]
An Interview with Michael Baird
Michael Baird talks about the first DNA court cases. TRANSCRIPT: Well 25 years ago, it was a lot different than it is today. There were fewer companies that were doing DNA testing. The company I was with then (Lifecodes Corporation) was one of the major commercial companies doing forensic testing as well as paternity. […]
Where do You see the Field of Forensics Heading in the Next 10 Years?
We asked our ISHI 26 speakers what technologies they are most excited about or where they saw the field heading in the next 10 years. Here’s what they had to say! I hope that it will be possible to establish robust methodology and standard guidelines for next generation sequencing involving […]
Aiding the Innocent: How Witness to Innocence Supports the Wrongly Convicted
ISHI 26 featured Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person sentenced to death who was exonerated through DNA evidence. Twenty of the 336 people who have been exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing in the United States served time on death row.* The true perpetrators have been identified in 166 of those 336 exonerations, and went on to […]
From Death Row to Exoneration Thanks to DNA
Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person in the United States to be freed by post-conviction DNA testing, recounts his story of how he was convicted of a brutal murder, and subsequently freed by DNA evidence. TRANSCRIPT: My name is Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, honorably discharged Marine from Cambridge, Maryland. I’m also the first person […]
Catching a Serial Killer
“Is your life just like CSI?” That is the prevailing question I get asked when someone learns of my occupation as Deputy Sheriff Criminalist for the Contra Costa County (CA) Office of the Sheriff. Alas, my life is not quite so glamorous. It actually often entails entering formulas into an excel spreadsheet while being placed […]
Returning the Stolen
Argentina is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think of dictatorships, yet the “Dirty War” of the late 1970s killed 10,000–30,000 citizens in an act of political repression by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. Among this figure includes some 13,000 people who disappeared overnight, sent to a network of hundreds of […]
Phenotyping – What Can and Should We Predict?
David Ballard of King’s College London describes what phenotyping can accurately predict, the ethical and legal issues surrounding the topic, and the role it should play in solving crime. TRANSCRIPT: I’m David Ballard. I’m a Research Associate in Forensic Genetics at King’s College London. We’re a group that does both casework, research, […]
