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Thursday, September 9, 2010

The challenges continue

From the Belleville News Democrat: "Defense attorneys will attack the bloody fingerprint evidence that prosecutors say connects Darrell "Rell" Lane to the triple stabbing murders of a west Belleville hairdresser and his two clients.

Lane, now 20, appearing in court with his lawyers Ethan Skaggs, Andrew Liefer and LaToya Berry, filed a motion Tuesday asking St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton to limit testimony regarding bloodstain pattern analysis and asking for clarification regarding testimony by state's witness David W. Carter, an Illinois State Police blood pattern expert.

Wharton will hear arguments regarding the bloody fingerprint evidence and other pretrial motions on Oct. 11. Lane's trial scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

Lane is accused of three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of hair stylist Michael Cooney and his two clients, sisters Doris Fischer, 79, and Dorothy Bone, 82. They were found stabbed to death on March 2, 2005, in Cooney's home-based salon at 7813 W. Main St.

The defense has asked prosecutors Jim Piper and Jon Allard to provide them with Carter's resume', including his education and training, as well as a list of other cases Carter has testified in, plus other details, including video or audio recordings, of any experiments Carter conducted in this case.

In the motion, Liefer cited a National Academy of Science report that found the bloodstain analysis "suffers from the worst deficiencies that impair the reliable determination of scientific truth."

Click here to the read the rest of the story.

The defense bar is taking the NAS report as gospel. In a future series, I'll tackle my response to the NAS report and what we're planning to do if certain scenarios come to pass. The good news is that the Forensic Photoshop workflow remains one of the only peer-reviewed and widely published workflows for the use of Photoshop in court matters.

Enjoy.

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