BITE ME

 This is what you say to the arrogant prosecutor who tells you their lab report and scientists have determined that your client is guilty. 

Remind them that their office was one of the first to use the new, exciting, and now shown to be a totally fraudulent "science" of bite mark identification.  Then ask them if they know how many defendants their office convicted on bite mark ID? Then, if you want to be really cruel, ask them if they know the office that sent Neil and Slappy to the Florida Supreme Court? 

Then you can use the crude pejorative, send them this link, and go investigate their science.

The real point is, as one great and now departed criminal defense attorney told us when we were in law school, the only thing you waive (wave) in trial is the American Flag. Remember that it is our job as criminal defense attorneys to question everything- no matter how red in the face your judge gets for wasting their time, and no matter how much the prosecution and even sometimes the judge threatens your client with a trial tax. 

Rumpole tip- when a prosecutor threatens an increased sentence after trial, ask them to put it in writing. They won't. They know it is a violation of their ethical duties, and yet they do it all the time and the outrage from the criminal defense community is far far less than we believe it should be. 

Anyway, read the article and get inspired to fight.  

Bite Mark Analysis is Junk Science. 

BITE ME

BREAKING: Chad Johnson, who has been jailed since last week for patting his lawyer's butt in court for doing a good job has been released after telling the Broward Judge that he was sorry and did not mean any disrespect. So the Broward Judge got her pound of flesh. Happy? 

The AP writes what we in the criminal defense field have known for some time: Bite mark identification is unreliable (witch craft) nonsense (sorry Dr. Souviron). The article is here.
Bite mark identification evidence first came into the popular conscience with the prosecution of Ted Bundy in Miami and the testimony of Coral Gables Dentist Dr. Richard Souviron:

Bite mark analysis hit the big time at Bundy's 1979 Florida trial.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3454249_p2/ap-impact-bites-derided-as-unreliable.html#storylink=cpy

On the night Bundy went on a killing spree that left two young women dead and three others seriously wounded, he savagely bit one of the murder victims, Lisa Levy. A Florida forensic dentist, Dr. Richard Souviron, testified at Bundy's murder trial that his unusual, mangled teeth were a match.

Bundy was found guilty and executed. The bite marks were considered the key piece of physical evidence against him...

Then came DNA testing. Beginning in the early 2000s, new evidence set free men serving prison time or awaiting the death penalty largely because of bite mark testimony that later proved faulty.

We The Journalists:

Ever wonder who that guy in the USC shirt, huddled in the back of Judge Thomas's courtroom sipping black coffee and using the wi-fi is? 

Why it's ace Herald crime reporter David Ovalle, and the Society Of Professional Journalists ("going to jail to protect sources since 1972") did an article on our own REGJB crime reporter here. 

David likes black coffee, golf, California, and long walks on the beach. 

BOT: BOT is a DUI diversion program for first offenders. It was started in Orlando, and has since spread to Miami Dade, and now West Palm Beach. One guess which county isn't even considering it? Hint: about 27 miles north of the REGJB. 

Another long hot week in a long hot summer. Stay cool and we'll See You In Court.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3454249_p2/ap-impact-bites-derided-as-unreliable.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3454249_p2/ap-impact-bites-derided-as-unreliable.html#storylink=cpy