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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
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @08:08PM
Here we go again with the "everybody who disagrees with me is racist" drivel.
And here goes Eth with the "everybody who calls me a racist just disagrees with me!" drool, again. No, Eth, we don't think you're a racist because we disagree with you, but we think that because you are in fact a racist. Everyone knows that, all rational people agree. People disagree with you because you are wrong. Some of us even realize that you are providing cover for the more everyday racism on this site, of the "I am not a racist, but" and "Jeff Sessions in no longer a racist, he just wants to stop crime and make us safe, and if that means lowering the level of reliability of forensic evidence so that we can put more hippies and minorities and commies in the hoosegaw, so be it" varieties.