I mean, you can’t even trust some DNA evidence. It’s been proven that skin cells and hair can be transferred from public transit, ride shares, carpeting - all sorts of ways without you ever coming into direct contact with the other person.
While you''re at it, please ban "shaken baby" experts who invariably target teenagers, poor people, POC, and anyone else with a structural disadvantage built in to our system of justice.
> I’d like to see something even more strict — including full-on bans on fiber evidence, blood spatter evidence, bite mark evidence and other forensic pseudoscience altogether,
Well how would TV crime procedurals stay in business? They can't ALL be semi-psychics who walk into a crime scene and can visualize the murder happening
I was reading a relatively contemporary suspense novel where one of the characters was a forensic psychologist working for the feds, and he was talking about polygraph machines, and evaluating a murder suspect using projective tests (Rorschach -ink blot- and the Thematic Apperception Test, etc.) and personality profile scales (MMPI) and I nearly quit the whole book, because it so took me out of the story, being mad about the bullshit stereotype of what a psychologist would do within criminal justice system. It’s so tiring having the general public be fed a stereotype based in pseudoscience nonsense.
This should also be the case for criminal profiling. As much as I enjoyed Mindhunter, the number of compulsive killers (what we more commonly call "serial killers") that we know of is such a small minority of actual murderers, let alone the general population, that it is almost impossible to make valid generalizations about them.
The pathologies of the actual compulsive murderers that we have investigated and imprisoned are so unique, about the only thing they have in common is that they have been compelled to kill multiple people over a period of time.
We get a lot of undergrads wanting to major in psychology to become criminal profilers or work with serial killers. It doesn’t matter how many times we point out that’s primarily a TV-show-created job, not a real profession with a legitimate foundation in psychological science. We can offer them a very doable double major in psych and criminal justice, but they’re not going to end up doing something like all those popular tv shows. It’s a problem!
Me too, and I'm shocked that it's been 20 years. What was it Pink Floyd sang? "Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time." That's how I feel most days.
I ain't no lawyer, but it seems to me that our justice/incarceration system is desperately in need of something: efficiency.
Now, that might seem counterintuitive - it might evoke images of an 'efficient' justice system that speedily dispatches those accused of crimes off to jail without sufficient due process. What I mean is, it seems like there's so much paperwork, red tape and bureaucracy that there's no time for court-appointed lawyers to prepare, and no time for reviewing and re-trying cases with sketchy evidence and/or slipshod representation! Staten's case - as just one of, sadly, many - should have been looked at a second time *decades* ago.
What our existing criminal justice system is in need of is citizen oversight and accountability. What it needs in the long term is a complete overhaul of the entire system, including facilities, training and hiring practices.
Texas governors serve for too long. It's been nearly thirty years since Ann Richards was governor, and they're still on just the third one since then. Twenty years since Willingham was murdered by the state, and that was just one governor ago. Fuck that.
Would turning the DA's office into a non-political / non-elected position help with any of this? I'm torn. On the one hand, it would seemingly remove the incentive to play to the Fox News loonies in the suburbs, whose demands to GIIIIIIT TOOOOOUGH so often lead to this "bring me *anyone's* head" approach. On the other hand, would it remove what little vestige of political accountability may still be there?
I desperately want to give Mr Staten a warm, loving, supportive embrace. It would do absolutely NOTHING to make up for the absolutely unforgiveable crime of having forty years of his life stolen from him for a crime he clearly did not commit, but it might in some far too small and insignificant way communicate how overwhelming sorry, disgusted, and outraged I am regarding his egregious, uncalled for confinement.
There exist no words that adequate articulate how unspeakably WRONG it is to incarcerate innocent individual for any crime. Better that one hundred blatantly guilty suspects stalk away in arrogant, ill gotten freedom than ONE individual be wrongly convicted and imprisoned.
That there remain so MANY individuals known to be innocent of myriad offenses still rotting behind bars in various American for-profit prisons is a CRIME that those responsible damned good and well ought to be facing some serious lockdown time for themselves.
That poor kangaroo looked confused and probably was just wondering what it had gotten itself into. I was happy to see that they reunited it with its owner.
Also, although it seemed that the kangaroo was clearly accustomed to humans, I would not have been getting as close to it as those people were. I'd prefer not to have list a visit to the ER as "kangaroo-related injuries".
I mean, you can’t even trust some DNA evidence. It’s been proven that skin cells and hair can be transferred from public transit, ride shares, carpeting - all sorts of ways without you ever coming into direct contact with the other person.
While you''re at it, please ban "shaken baby" experts who invariably target teenagers, poor people, POC, and anyone else with a structural disadvantage built in to our system of justice.
Ta, Robyn. How many innocent (Black) men are sitting in prison, or awaiting execution, or already dead? It's horrific.
Exactly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DloshwSGlM
I think prosecutors should have to serve the sentences of their defendants when it is found they wrongfully convicted someone.
These kinds of cases bring me to tears.
> I’d like to see something even more strict — including full-on bans on fiber evidence, blood spatter evidence, bite mark evidence and other forensic pseudoscience altogether,
Well how would TV crime procedurals stay in business? They can't ALL be semi-psychics who walk into a crime scene and can visualize the murder happening
I was reading a relatively contemporary suspense novel where one of the characters was a forensic psychologist working for the feds, and he was talking about polygraph machines, and evaluating a murder suspect using projective tests (Rorschach -ink blot- and the Thematic Apperception Test, etc.) and personality profile scales (MMPI) and I nearly quit the whole book, because it so took me out of the story, being mad about the bullshit stereotype of what a psychologist would do within criminal justice system. It’s so tiring having the general public be fed a stereotype based in pseudoscience nonsense.
What do you gift for a 20th anniversary of a state murder of an innocent man? Chocolates? Silver? An "oops, we did it again" card?
An "oops, we'll do it again" card seems more appropriate
This should also be the case for criminal profiling. As much as I enjoyed Mindhunter, the number of compulsive killers (what we more commonly call "serial killers") that we know of is such a small minority of actual murderers, let alone the general population, that it is almost impossible to make valid generalizations about them.
The pathologies of the actual compulsive murderers that we have investigated and imprisoned are so unique, about the only thing they have in common is that they have been compelled to kill multiple people over a period of time.
We get a lot of undergrads wanting to major in psychology to become criminal profilers or work with serial killers. It doesn’t matter how many times we point out that’s primarily a TV-show-created job, not a real profession with a legitimate foundation in psychological science. We can offer them a very doable double major in psych and criminal justice, but they’re not going to end up doing something like all those popular tv shows. It’s a problem!
And almost without exception were molested as children.
"...the 20 year anniversary of the state of Texas killing Cameron Todd Willingham..."
Damn, I'm old - I remember that case vividly.
We're all older, but then again we weren't arrested in Texas and convicted by inauthentic evidence.
I too.
Me too, and I'm shocked that it's been 20 years. What was it Pink Floyd sang? "Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time." That's how I feel most days.
People who have been through shit like this should get a parade, a public apology, and an apartment.
At least.
And a pension equal to the current salary of the District Attorney taken from the DA's budget.
I ain't no lawyer, but it seems to me that our justice/incarceration system is desperately in need of something: efficiency.
Now, that might seem counterintuitive - it might evoke images of an 'efficient' justice system that speedily dispatches those accused of crimes off to jail without sufficient due process. What I mean is, it seems like there's so much paperwork, red tape and bureaucracy that there's no time for court-appointed lawyers to prepare, and no time for reviewing and re-trying cases with sketchy evidence and/or slipshod representation! Staten's case - as just one of, sadly, many - should have been looked at a second time *decades* ago.
What our existing criminal justice system is in need of is citizen oversight and accountability. What it needs in the long term is a complete overhaul of the entire system, including facilities, training and hiring practices.
This is true.
Texas governors serve for too long. It's been nearly thirty years since Ann Richards was governor, and they're still on just the third one since then. Twenty years since Willingham was murdered by the state, and that was just one governor ago. Fuck that.
Would turning the DA's office into a non-political / non-elected position help with any of this? I'm torn. On the one hand, it would seemingly remove the incentive to play to the Fox News loonies in the suburbs, whose demands to GIIIIIIT TOOOOOUGH so often lead to this "bring me *anyone's* head" approach. On the other hand, would it remove what little vestige of political accountability may still be there?
I desperately want to give Mr Staten a warm, loving, supportive embrace. It would do absolutely NOTHING to make up for the absolutely unforgiveable crime of having forty years of his life stolen from him for a crime he clearly did not commit, but it might in some far too small and insignificant way communicate how overwhelming sorry, disgusted, and outraged I am regarding his egregious, uncalled for confinement.
There exist no words that adequate articulate how unspeakably WRONG it is to incarcerate innocent individual for any crime. Better that one hundred blatantly guilty suspects stalk away in arrogant, ill gotten freedom than ONE individual be wrongly convicted and imprisoned.
That there remain so MANY individuals known to be innocent of myriad offenses still rotting behind bars in various American for-profit prisons is a CRIME that those responsible damned good and well ought to be facing some serious lockdown time for themselves.
How originalist of you. The current pack of "originalists" would prefer to jail 'em all, just in case.
OT:
A kangaroo was seen in Tampa. He was in the pool area.
Dude was just trying to swim, let him go.
https://www.wesh.com/article/kangaroo-tampa-apartment-complex/46686542
That poor kangaroo looked confused and probably was just wondering what it had gotten itself into. I was happy to see that they reunited it with its owner.
Also, although it seemed that the kangaroo was clearly accustomed to humans, I would not have been getting as close to it as those people were. I'd prefer not to have list a visit to the ER as "kangaroo-related injuries".
Q: Why do kangaroos prefer IPAs?
.
.
.
.
A: IPAs have extra hops.
.
Try the veal!
Was there a kitten there, shaming its father into stalking said kangaroo?
That was DeSantis in a kangaroo suit. He’s embarrassed to be seen in public.
White go-go boots, or I call it fake news.