Experts Category Archives — Page 9 of 9 — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog Published by International Military Lawyer

Voodoo Science.

February 19, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

What do you do if you have government sponsored or endorsed "science" that helps catch thieves, cheats, and liars, and other scientists question the validity of your science — you threaten a lawsuit for libel.

Professor Tillers has picked up on the interesting topic of voice analysis as first raised on Deception blog. He's noted the interesting twists on the issue, including the fact that the magazine that first published the contradictory article removed it from the web — too late. The offending article was already snapped up and is still available.

See, Prof. Peter Tillers, Voodoo Science in Some Putative Lie Detection Techniques? Tillers on Evidence and Inference, 16 February 2009.

Dedrick Fisher and shaken baby prosecutions

February 12, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Patrick Clayborn, Pre-court-martial hearing held for Fort Rucker soldier, 11 February 2009.

So called shaken-baby cases can be difficult. The evidence of nexus between acts alleged and injury or death can be ambiguous and subject to interpretation, or in some cases overpowering.

There are several cases worth reading in this area, Warner, in particular is useful because the holdings of Warner are useful for any case in which the defense and prosecution need to have expert assistance. Warner was itself a shaken-baby case. In Warner the prosecution had obtained one of the best experts possible for itself and then tried to foist an unqualified "expert" on the defense. The bottom line from Warner is what I refer to as a rule of approximate parity in experts, in situations where the prosecution has experts. Of course this remains a troubling aspect of the trial counsel being an entry point and key to the defense access to witnesses in general, not just experts. See United States v. Warner, 62 M.J. 114 (C.A.A.F. 2005). Lest the prosecution resort to United States v. Short, as justifying them having a really good expert and the defense not, the court in Warner points out that:

Crawford & Expert Testimony

January 20, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

In April we posted about Crawford and expert testimony,

and we've blogged about other confrontation issues. A commenter has

brought some helpful information to our attention, and now yours.