Congressional Hearing

[Ernie Hamm]

Received from AAFS:

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will be hosting a hearing entitled Raising the Bar: Progress and Future Needs in Forensic Science on Tuesday, September 10, at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). This hearing will be streamed live and AAFS members are encouraged to tune in. For more information, please access the following links:

https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calend ... tID=109909

https://science.house.gov/

[Boyd Baumgartner]

Thanks Ernie. I'm embedding the stream.


youtu.be/jrNIUTJK8hI

[josher89]

The question that was asked at 1:30:21 was a great question.

The answer given at 1:30:49 was uninformed, ignorant, and just plain dumb.

My partner thought I had suddenly developed Tourrette's when I listened to that part.

Really; we get to set our own standards? There's no criteria for accreditation or certification? I gotta stop now...

[Dr. Borracho]

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

[NRivera]

I found it telling that legislators don't know the difference between a legal standard and a scientific one. "Does your evidence prove beyond a reasonable doubt?"

[Bill Schade]

"I found it telling that legislators don't know the difference between a legal standard and a scientific one."


Why is that surprising? Practitioners are just starting to recognize the difference.

Bill

[Dr. Borracho]

The term "forensic science" is almost an oxymoron. We are straddling a barbed wire fence, stretched tight. One foot is planted on the law side of the fence. The other foot is planted on the science side of the fence. It seems like nowadays, prosecutors are trying to pull us to their side of the fence and defense attorneys have been joined by scientists in academia to try and pull us to the other side of the fence. Our impossible task is to try and not get skewered on the barbs.