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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday April 16 2017, @12:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the who-really-needs-independent-experts-anyway? dept.

Common Dreams reports

The Trump administration's anti-science bent has reached the Department of Justice (DOJ), with Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying [April 10] that the department is ending the National Commission on Forensic Science.

The 30-member panel was described by ThinkProgress as "a group of scientists, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other experts tasked by the Obama administration in 2013 with raising standards for the use of forensic evidence in criminal proceedings".

In its place, a senior forensic advisor will be appointed "to interface with forensic science stakeholders and advise department leadership", Sessions' statement said.

[...] "The reliance of law enforcement on questionable science and the overstatement of the reliability of that science has been a leading cause of the wrongful conviction of innocent people", said National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) president Barry Pollack on Monday. "The reason the National Commission on Forensic Science has been so important is that it includes leading independent scientists, allowing an unbiased expert evaluation of which techniques are scientifically valid and which are not. NACDL is terribly disappointed that even while acknowledging the crucial role played by the National Commission on Forensic Science, the Attorney General has chosen to disband it."

Additional Coverage:

Previous: Forensic Hair Matches: More Junk Science from the FBI


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:07AM (#494663)

    I don't see how the ownership of the means of production by a moneyed, non-worker class (and not by the workers who do the producing) has anything to do with this.

    It sounds like you are might be talking about "competition" (which is a totally different concept and is not exclusive to a Capitalist-only system).
    There is a Lady Bird Johnson quote that you may have thought applies:

    The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.

    ...except that this appears to be censorship, not dialog.

    ...then again, you might be thinking of the very warped Libertarian concept that gov't must always show a direct monetary profit from its activities.

    Perhaps you could explain WTF you mean.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]