Forensic expert witnesses carry unusual authority in criminal trials. A jury that might skeptically evaluate an eyewitness’s account often defers to a laboratory analyst who presents technical findings in confident, technical language. The perception that science is objective (that a GC-MS result or a DNA match speaks for itself) can overwhelm the jury’s usual critical […]
Category Archives: Criminal Defense
In February 2009, the National Research Council of the National Academies published a report that fundamentally changed how forensic science evidence is understood in the American legal system. Titled “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward,” the report was the product of a congressionally mandated study examining the state of forensic science […]
Federal sentencing is fundamentally different from state sentencing. In Texas state courts, judges and juries impose sentences within a statutory range (for example, 2 to 20 years for a second-degree felony), and the decision is driven primarily by the facts of the offense and the defendant’s criminal history. In federal court, the sentencing process is […]
The THC vape cartridge in your carry-on bag just cost you a felony charge. That sentence captures what tens of thousands of travelers who pass through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport every year do not know until it is too late. A THC vape cartridge that is entirely legal where you purchased it, that you have […]
Most people arrested on prescription drug charges did not think of themselves as drug offenders. They were patients (often managing real, documented pain or anxiety) who at some point crossed a line they may not have fully understood existed. But Texas Health and Safety Code §481.129 treats prescription fraud as a serious felony, and prosecutors […]
For decades, a grainy surveillance clip or a damning social-media video was close to game-over for the defense. Juries tend to believe what they can see and hear. But artificial intelligence has changed the math. Today, a convincing fake voicemail can be produced in minutes. A face can be swapped into a bar fight. A […]
On April 20, 2026, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in District of Columbia v. R.W., No. 25-248, reversing the D.C. Court of Appeals and holding that a Metropolitan Police officer had reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment to stop a juvenile identified as R.W. The 7-2 per curiam opinion reinforces a principle […]
In 2016, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) published a detailed scientific assessment of forensic feature-comparison methods used in criminal courts. Feature-comparison methods are those that attempt to determine whether a crime scene sample came from a specific source (a person, a weapon, a shoe) by comparing patterns or features. Bite […]
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this week a $600,000 partnership with Othram (a Texas-based forensic biotechnology company) to deploy investigative genetic genealogy against Florida’s backlog of more than 21,000 unsolved homicides, some dating back to the 1960s. The initiative begins with three cold cases from the 1970s and 1980s in Broward County, Miami-Dade, and […]
On April 8, 2026, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett sentenced Jasveen Sangha (the Los Angeles drug dealer federal prosecutors called the “Ketamine Queen”) to 15 years in federal prison for distributing the ketamine that killed actor Matthew Perry in October 2023. The sentence was the harshest imposed on any of the five defendants in […]