Forensic Science Reform

Protecting the Innocent

Wendy J Koen, C. Michael Bowers

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780128027196
• eBook ISBN: 9780128027387
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Forensic Science
• Index: Law

Forensic Science Reform: Protecting the Innocent is written for the nonscientist to help make complicated scientific information clear and concise enough for attorneys and judges to master. This volume covers physical forensic science, namely arson, shaken baby syndrome, non-accidental trauma, bite marks, DNA, ballistics, comparative bullet lead analysis, fingerprint analysis, and hair and fiber analysis, and contains valuable contributions from leading experts in the field of forensic science.- 2018 PROSE Awards - Winner, Award for Textbook/Social Services: Association of American Publishers- Offers training for prosecuting attorneys on the present state of the forensic sciences in order to avoid reliance on legal precedent that lags decades behind the science- Provides defense attorneys the knowledge to defend their clients against flawed science- Arms innocence projects and appellate attorneys with the latest information to challenge convictions that were obtained using faulty science- Uses science-specific case studies to simplify issues in forensic science for the legal professional- Offers a detailed overview of both the failures and progress made in the forensic sciences, making the volume ideal for law school courses covering wrongful convictions, or for undergraduate courses on law, legal ethics, or forensics

Chapter 1

Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis

Abstract

Compositional bullet lead analysis (CBLA) was a method used solely in the US by the FBI Laboratory to compare the content of bullet lead and make an attribution of source (manufacturer, production unit, box of bullets). Although the chemical analysis methods used are sound, flaws in the interpretation and statistics lead to misevaluations of evidence and overstating its probative weight. Significant criticism led the FBI to ask the National Academies of Science to convene a Committee to review its methods and protocols. Based in part on the Committee's report, the FBI discontinued CBLA in 2005. Over 2500 cases across several decades were worked by the FBI, and CBLA played a significant role in many of them, including death penalty cases. After reviewing the case of James Otto Earhart, this chapter reviews the FBI's analytical and statistical methods (with minimal math), why their base assumptions were wrong, and examples of testimony that overstated the evidence. CBLA is instructive not only for attorneys who may face appeals cases, but also for fundamental issues that may involve other forensic methods.

Keywords

Analytically indistinguishable; Billets; Elemental content; Extrusion; Firearm; Match; Misleading evidence; National Academy of Sciences; Supply chain

Chapter Outline

Case Study: James Otto Earhart By Wendy J. Koen

Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis Challenge

Sufficiency of the Evidence

References

Exquisite Measurements, Erroneous Inferences: Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis By Max M. Houck

Introduction

The FBI’s Original Premises

What Is a Supply Chain?

Billets to Bullets

Melting and Specifications

Extrusion and Wires

Sales and Distribution

The Easy Part: Analysis

“Matching” and Chaining

Problems With Testimony-Compounded Problems With Interpretation

Where Does This Leave Bullet Lead Analysis?

Summary

References

Case Study: James Otto Earhart

Wendy J. Koen Child Refuge, Inc., Menifee, CA, United States

The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is the duty of the living to do so for them.

Lois McMaster Bujold

On the afternoon of May 12, 1987, a grimy, morbidly obese, junk dealer named James Otto Earhart was seen talking to 9-year-old Kandy Kirtland in front of her house (Earhart v. State, 1991). Earhart was socially awkward. He was not above telling a lie or two if it helped him make a few dollars off of a junk transaction. The 400 pounds of weight he carried fit awkwardly on his 5′9″ frame. He was not pretty. His clothes were filthy, and he needed a shower and a shave. Earhart drank a case and a half of beer every day and was never a picture of sobriety or health. His psychiatrist described him as psychotic and “not dealing with a full deck” (Earhart v. State, 1994, p. 762). He inspired disgust in the eyes of the good, God-fearing people of Bryan, Texas. He was easy to spot and impossible to forget.

When 9-year-old Kandy Kirtland went missing the same day she had a conversation with 43-year-old Earhart, neighbors who saw Earhart and Kandy talking were quick to inform the police. After all, based on his appearance alone, Earhart could not be more accurately cast as a depraved miscreant. Housewives who had called Earhart when they needed old appliances hauled away suddenly remembered him as threatening. Memories of innocent conversations they had with Earhart about their children suddenly turned nightmarish and tinged with peril. Everyone wanted to help, and people started to remember sighting Earhart’s car, a light-colored Chevrolet, around Kandy’s home.

When Earhart read the local paper and found out the little girl he had been talking to had disappeared and that police were looking for a man of his unique size and description driving a light-colored Chevrolet, he instinctively knew that he was in trouble. He was aware of how things looked. So, he fled. He traded the car he had been driving for a maroon Oldsmobile and drove to a campsite at a national forest just over an hour away. He would later tell the police why he fled:

Well I heard about [Kandy’s disappearance] in the paper the next morning and I, I, just, uh, I knew that, you know, they were going to blame me because, I knew they would probably blame me, so I, uh, panicked. I got in the car and left…I just went, you know, took some of my clothes. I don’t, uh, shouldn’t have done it, you know, but I did. I just panicked.

Earhart v. State (1991, p. 615)

On May 26, 1987, Kandy Kirtland’s decomposing body was found buried in trash and debris a couple of miles from her home in Bryan, Texas. Her arms were bound behind her back with an electrical cord, and she had been shot once in the head. She was wearing the same turquoise shorts, white shirt, white tennis shoes, and jewelry she wore when she disappeared 2 weeks earlier.

The same day Kandy’s body was found, Earhart was found living in his newly acquired maroon Oldsmobile at a campsite at Sam Houston National Forest (Earhart v. State, 1991, p. 614). Among Earhart’s belongings, police found a shirt with a small amount of blood on it. Although the blood was type O and Earhart and 45% of the rest of the population have type O blood, an expert testified that the blood was not Earhart’s because it contained a different enzyme (Id.). Kandy’s blood was also type O, and Kandy could not be excluded as the source of the blood. Earhart was arrested, and police seized a 0.22 caliber revolver he had in his car. The weapon had a small amount of blood on the barrel; it was too small of an amount to be typed (Earhart v. State, 1991).

There were other reasons to believe Earhart had something to do with Kandy’s disappearance and murder. At one point in his interrogation, Earhart explained why he came to be at Kandy’s house on the day of her disappearance and the interaction he had with the girl:

Well I went over to look at a compressor [Kandy’s father was selling] on Monday, and then I came back on Tuesday and she got off the bus there, and I was sitting there. I was fixing to take off and she came up to me and wanted to know if I would give her a ride up to the end of the road there, and so I, I did. She went in the house and, and she came back, and I, I pulled in the driveway and she got in the car and so I took her up and let her off at the end of Gabbard Road and 2818. And that’s all I know about it….After I let her out of the car, she crossed Gabbard Road, to that side, and I left her standing there on the corner … she told me that her, uh, girlfriend was going to pick her up, her girlfriend and her mother, her girlfriend’s mother is what she told me….All I asked her was where she was going, whether, she said she was going over to her friend’s house and, uh, I asked her what time her mother was going to be in before I could look at the compressor and she said later on that evening.

Earhart v. State (1991, p. 614)

Since his own words placed him with Kandy, he became the perfect suspect for her disappearance and her murder.

Bryan Police officer Jerry Stover testified that he searched Earhart’s home and recovered three 0.22 caliber bullets from Earhart’s bedroom (Earhart v. State, 1991). FBI Agent John Riley ran compositional bullet lead analysis (CBLA) on the bullets found in Earhart’s bedroom, the bullets in the handgun found in his car, and the bullet from the victim’s body. CBLA tests the minute amount of trace elements in the metal making up the bullet to see if different bullets have the same or different amounts of these trace elements. After CBLA, all of these bullets were classified as “analytically indistinguishable.” This feat of science conclusively tied the junk man to the murder of the little girl. It would seal his fate.

At trial, Agent Riley explained to the jury that bullets that are “analytically indistinguishable” are “typically found within the same box of ammunition” (Earhart v. State, 1991, p. 615). He testified, “from my 21 years’ experience of doing bullet lead analysis and doing research on boxes of ammunition down through the years I can determine if bullets came from the same box of ammunition” (Giannelli, 2010, p. 310, quoting Testimony of John Riley, State v. Earhart, No. 4064, Dist. Ct. Lee County, 21st Judicial Dist., Texas, Transcript at 5248–49). He later clarified his statement, saying that “analytically indistinguishable bullets which do not come from the same box most likely would have been manufactured at the same place on or about the same day; that is, in the same batch” (Id.). He testified that based on all 0.22 caliber bullets made in one year, the probability that two 0.22 caliber bullets came from the same batch is approximately 0.000025%, “give or take a zero” (Id.). On cross-examination, he acknowledged the numbers which he relied upon to reach the 0.000025% statistic did not consider that there are several different types of 0.22 caliber bullets made each year (0.22 long and 0.22 long rifle, etc.) (Id.).

Although Earhart’s defense counsel effectively cross-examined Riley, no authoritative expert at the time of trial was questioning the reliability of the FBI’s CBLA evidence. It was held as infallible, solid, precise, scientific evidence that linked Earhart to Kandy’s murder. The testimony of the FBI agent was revered. Regardless of the weakness of the case against Earhart, this testimony tied him unquestionably to Kandy’s brutal murder. As we will see later, this evidence has proven meaningless. However, given that the spot of blood on the gun and that the bullets found in Earhart’s possessio...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Compositional Bullet Lead Analysis
• Chapter 2. Microscopic Hair Comparison
• Chapter 3. Arson
• Chapter 4. Shaken Baby Syndrome
• Chapter 5. Bite Mark Evidence
• Chapter 6. Firearms Identification
• Chapter 7. DNA Evidence
• Chapter 8. Presumptive and Confirmatory Blood Testing
• Chapter 9. Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
• Chapter 10. Crime Scene Reconstruction
• Chapter 11. Fingerprints
• Index