I'll be on PBS's Frontline tonight in an episode entitled "The Real CSI." The show will investigate problems with the science behind forensic evidence and how it is used in the courtroom. I was interviewed for the program, and appear towards the end of the preview below.
Those of you who know me know that I've spent a good portion of my legal career trying to clean up Mississippi's death investigation system. As I said in my interview with Frontline, getting forensic evidence right is vitally important for two reasons. First, it prevents our society from putting innocent people in jail. And that's important when one of the foundational principles of our criminal justice system is Blackstone's statement that it is "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." (This principle is even espoused as long ago as Genesis 18, in which God says he would spare the entire city of Sodom if ten righteous people can be found within it.)
The second reason getting forensics right is that when we do it wrong, killers remain free amongst us to strike again. Like Justin Albert Johnson.
Anyway, here's the trailer for tonight's episode of Frontline on PBS. You can watch it at 10 pm EST/9 pm CST.
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