In court, we have witnesses swear to tell the truth, yet scientific evidence seems to be the new god of the courtroom. For example, the urban myth of fingerprints would have juries believing that fingerprint analysis constitutes some sort of scientific evidence that proves--beyond any reasonable doubt--any print "matching" a defendant's print means that the defendant possessed that item (be it drugs, a firearm, knife, whatever). For those of you willing to take a peak behind the veil, you'll find that fingerprint evidence is merely a sloppy statistical smoke screen whose "science" is monopolized by the law enforcement. (click on my article entitled Fingerprint Experts Shouldn't Make Claims They Can't Support for further fingerprint info). DNA has its own scientific problems, but today's topic is not my usual attack on how scientific evidence is used in our Florida courtrooms. Today we'll discuss how to work around seemingly damning DNA results. Let's take a look at a real life example of how a DNA match can still be a losing case.
In Miller v. State, 107 So.3d 498 (Fla. 2d 2013), Miller was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. As you might expect, this charge essentially requires that (1) Miller be a convicted felon, and (2) that he be in possession of a firearm. Now, we've had lengthy discussions of what "possession" means, so now is not the time to rehash that analysis. But, for brevity's sake, we know that possession comes in two flavors--actual or constructive. In Miller's case, the firearm was not found in his pocket or hand (actual possession), but rather, it was found in between a mattress in his apartment (constructive possession, meaning not in your hand or pockets).
In court, we have witnesses swear to tell the truth, yet scientific evidence seems to be the new god of the courtroom. For example, the urban myth of fingerprints would have juries believing that fingerprint analysis constitutes some sort of scientific evidence that proves--beyond any reasonable doubt--any print "matching" a defendant's print means that the defendant possessed that item (be it drugs, a firearm, knife, whatever). For those of you willing to take a peak behind the veil, you'll find that fingerprint evidence is merely a sloppy statistical smoke screen whose "science" is monopolized by the law enforcement. (click on my article entitled Fingerprint Experts Shouldn't Make Claims They Can't Support for further fingerprint info). DNA has its own scientific problems, but today's topic is not my usual attack on how scientific evidence is used in our Florida courtrooms. Today we'll discuss how to work around seemingly damning DNA results. Let's take a look at a real life example of how a DNA match can still be a losing case.
In Miller v. State, 107 So.3d 498 (Fla. 2d 2013), Miller was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. As you might expect, this charge essentially requires that (1) Miller be a convicted felon, and (2) that he be in possession of a firearm. Now, we've had lengthy discussions of what "possession" means, so now is not the time to rehash that analysis. But, for brevity's sake, we know that possession comes in two flavors--actual or constructive. In Miller's case, the firearm was not found in his pocket or hand (actual possession), but rather, it was found in between a mattress in his apartment (constructive possession, meaning not in your hand or pockets).