With the popularity of crime dramas like CSI focusing on forensic science, and increasing numbers of police and prosecutors making wide-spread use of DNA, high-tech science seems to have become the handmaiden of law enforcement. But this is a myth,asserts law professor and nationally known expert on police profiling David A. Harris. In fact, most of law enforcement does not embrace science—it rejects it instead, resisting it vigorously. The question at the heart of this book is why. »» Eyewitness identifications procedures using simultaneous lineups—showing the witness six persons together,as police have traditionally done—produces a significant number of incorrect identifications. »» Interrogations that include threats of harsh penalties and untruths about the existence of evidence proving the suspect’s guilt significantly increase the prospect of an innocent person confessing falsely. »» Fingerprint matching does not use probability calculations based on collected and standardized data to generate conclusions, but rather human interpretation and judgment.Examiners generally claim a zero rate of error – an untenable claim in the face of publicly known errors by the best examiners in the U.S. Failed Evidence explores the real reasons that police and prosecutors resist scientific change, and it lays out a concrete plan to bring law enforcement into the scientific present. Written in a crisp and engaging style, free of legal and scientific jargon, Failed Evidence will explain to police and prosecutors, political leaders and policy makers, as well as other experts and anyone else who cares about how law enforcement does its job, where we should go from here. Because only if we understand why law enforcement resists science will we be able to break through this resistance and convince police and prosecutors to rely on the best that science has to offer. Justice demands no less. Visit the author's blog here.

With the popularity of crime dramas like CSI focusing on forensic science, and increasing numbers of police and prosecutors making wide-spread use of DNA, high-tech science seems to have become the handmaiden of law enforcement. But this is a myth,asserts law professor and nationally known expert on police profiling David A. Harris. In fact, most of law enforcement does not embrace science—it rejects it instead, resisting it vigorously. The question at the heart of this book is why. »» Eyewitness identifications procedures using simultaneous lineups—showing the witness six persons together,as police have traditionally done—produces a significant number of incorrect identifications. »» Interrogations that include threats of harsh penalties and untruths about the existence of evidence proving the suspect’s guilt significantly increase the prospect of an innocent person confessing falsely. »» Fingerprint matching does not use probability calculations based on collected and standardized data to generate conclusions, but rather human interpretation and judgment.Examiners generally claim a zero rate of error – an untenable claim in the face of publicly known errors by the best examiners in the U.S. Failed Evidence explores the real reasons that police and prosecutors resist scientific change, and it lays out a concrete plan to bring law enforcement into the scientific present. Written in a crisp and engaging style, free of legal and scientific jargon, Failed Evidence will explain to police and prosecutors, political leaders and policy makers, as well as other experts and anyone else who cares about how law enforcement does its job, where we should go from here. Because only if we understand why law enforcement resists science will we be able to break through this resistance and convince police and prosecutors to rely on the best that science has to offer.Justice demands no less.

Texas Rules of Evidence Manual provides an updated comprehensive reference to Texas evidence for both civil and criminal cases. The book provides a rule-by-rule analysis of each Rule of Evidence. This sturdy hard-cover text is designed for heavy use in the courtroom. This text helps those who are bound to use the Texas Rules of Evidence, whether it is the bench or the bar or those studying evidence. While the text contains some academic discussions, the book is designed to explain what a particular Rule requires or prohibits, to indicate what the appellate courts have said about the Rules, and to offer some practical pointers on using the Rules. The book itself has been designed to make it as useful as possible to the harried judge, counsel, and student who must quickly find the "law." Following each Rule is an editorial commentary on the Rule explaining how the Rule works, what the Texas courts have said about the Rule, and how it compares with the Federal Rule, because Texas courts often review federal precedent where they find it helpful in applying a Texas Rule. When appropriate, practical pointers are also provided on how to use the Rule. Where the Rules apply in the same fashion for both civil and criminal cases, those points are discussed together. On the other hand, where they diverge, the authors have used separate headings for "Civil" and "Criminal" when that seems appropriate. One of the objectives of the Editorial Analysis in this text is to deal with the interrelationships of the various Rules. The authors have noted those areas where the Rules differ from pre-Rules case law or statutory provisions. Some of the Rules changed the prior Texas evidence law and, althoughmany of the Texas Rules agree with the Federal Rules, a number differ significantly.

In addition to covering the basics of collecting, preserving and presenting evidence, this revision presents the latest developments in the law of evidence that are of interest to criminal justice personnel. Highlights include: chapter outlines, lists of key terms and concepts for each chapter, a glossary, and new, up-to-date cases in Part II. Each chapter includes chapter outline, key terms and concepts. Part II contains briefs of judicial decisions related to the topics covered in the the text, in order to help the reader learn rule of law as well as the reasoning of the court that guides future court rulings. The book is rounded out with a Glossary, Appendices Related to the Federal Rules of Evidence and Uniform Rules of Evidence, and a Table of Cases.

Most murderers and rapists escape justice, a horrifying fact that has gone largely unexamined until now. This groundbreaking book tours nearly the entire criminal justice system, examining the rules and practices that regularly produce failures of justice in serious criminal cases. Each chapter outlines the nature and extent of justice failures in present practice, describing the interests at stake, and providing real-world examples. Finally, each chapter reviews proposed and implemented reforms that could balance the competing interests in a less justice-frustrating manner and recommends one—sometimes completely original—reform to improve the system. A systematic study of justice failures is long overdue. As this book discusses, regular failures of justice in serious criminal cases undermine deterrence and the criminal justice system’s credibility with the community as a moral authority. The damage caused by unpunished crime is immense and, even worse, falls primarily on vulnerable minority communities. Now for the first time, students, researchers, policymakers, and citizens have a resource that explains why justice failures occur and what can be done about them. Confronting Failures of Justice is accessible for use by college freshman through graduate students and law students and is designed to be main text for a course on justice failures, but it could be used in conjunction with other texts in a broad range of courses touching on criminal justice. It presents arguments in a highly-organized fashion and provides dozens of case studies, many with photographs, to gain student interest and to bring the academic discussions to life.