Wednesday 27 March 2013

Forensic experts have much to prove

[This is the heading over a letter in today's edition of The Scotsman from Iain McKie, retired senior police officer, father of Shirley and staunch supporter of Justice for Megrahi.  It reads as follows:]

Professor Fiona Raitt’s comments (...) about the recent Forensic Science Society conference in Edinburgh serve as a timely reminder to the decision-makers in our ­justice system that all is not well in relation to the quality of ­expert forensic ­evidence being presented in our courts.

As a result of this, miscarriages of justice are a real and present danger.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that, in respect of expert evidence, many decision-makers within our justice system refuse to admit that “the emperor has no clothes on”.  Fortunately, there are those like Professor Raitt who are speaking out and challenging the fiction that nothing is wrong.

My daughter, Shirley McKie, was nearly committed to prison because of false fingerprint evidence and, sadly, many of the lessons learned in the subsequent inquiry are in danger of being forgotten or ignored.

The innocent are being deemed guilty and the guilty deemed innocent, because of a failure to properly collect, examine, evaluate, and present forensic and other expert evidence.


In the “theatre” of our adversarial system, prosecution and defence lawyers often fail to ensure that only the best expert evidence is ­presented and effectively challenged in court. Many judges remain implacably opposed to acting as “gatekeepers” in respect of complex scientific testimony, preferring to leave often uncomprehending juries to work it out for themselves.


At the conference, both the justice secretary Kenny Mac­Askill and Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland expressed their wish that Scotland leads the way in matters forensic. Let’s hope this signals action within our justice system.


[As I commented on this blog on Monday: “The Lockerbie case provides textbook examples of unreliable forensic science and unreliable forensic scientists. Here are a few relevant names: Thurman, Hayes, Feraday.”]

2 comments:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2013. doc. nr. 9926.rtf.

    Since 12 Years, Scotland embezzled a criminal complaint, filed by Edwin Bollier (MEBO Ltd.) regarding of "Evidence-Fraud" in the "Lockerbie Tragedy" !
    For what reason ?

    NEUPERT & PARTNER
    Attorney´s at law Avocats

    Registered
    Office of the Procurator Fiscal
    Sheriff Courthouse
    Buccleuch-Street
    Dumfries DC-1 2 AN
    Scottland
    United Kingdom

    Zollikon-Zurich July 11, 2000
    SA13294.TXT

    Criminal Complaint regarding the Falsification Evidence In the Lockerbie Case
    Dear Mr Procurotor
    Acting on behalf of
    Mr Edwin Bollier
    Badenerstrasse 414, CH-8004 Zurich/Switzerland a key witness in the case of
    Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah we herewith respectfully submit the present request to open

    CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS with regard to the following punishable offences:

    A. Use Of a forged (never functioning) fragment of an alleged MST-13 timer, allegedly manufactured by Mebo Ltd.. the company of Mr Edwin Bollier as key evidence for the Crown.

    B. Manipulation with and disfigurement of the alleged MST-13 timer fragment up to September 13, 1999.

    C. Total disfigurement of said fragment from September 13, 1999 until June 2000, in order to obliterate shape and colour of said fragment.
    etc...
    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Telecommunication Switzerland. URL:www.lockerbie.ch

    ReplyDelete
  2. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2013.
    Summons for upcoming 25th anniversary of the PanAm 103 bombing...

    Scottish Justiciary - please take finite the unpleasant task and responsibility in the hand to enlighten the obvious Miscarriage of Justice in the "Lockerbie tragedy" - with 270 unforgetable victims !

    by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Telecommunication Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch

    ReplyDelete