Taped Conversations from the "Manson Family" to be released to police

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/manson-family-tapes-charles-tex-watson

A federal judge has ordered taped conversations from 1969 between Manson family killer Charles "Tex" Watson and his now-dead lawyer turned over to Los Angeles police, who are investigating the cult's possible involvement in unsolved murders.
The written order by US District Judge Richard Schell in Texas, made public on Tuesday, upholds a ruling last year by a federal bankruptcy judge. Watson had appealed the bankruptcy judge's order from the California prison where he is serving a life term, claiming that the tapes were protected under attorney-client privilege.
Some eight hours of discussions between Watson and his defence attorney Bill Boyd were recorded in 1969 after Watson was arrested in the Manson family murder of actress Sharon Tate and others in Los Angeles. The tapes surfaced years later, during federal bankruptcy proceedings involving Boyd's now-defunct law firm in Texas.
"We're very pleased the judge ruled in our favour. We're looking forward to getting those tapes and thoroughly analysing the contents," Los Angeles Police spokesman Andrew Smith said.
"This Manson family crime spree is one of most notorious and heinous in Southern California history and we, the LAPD, believe we owe it to the victims and their families to ensure that every facet of this case is thoroughly and completely investigated, and we plan to do exactly that," Smith said.
If Watson does not appeal the ruling within 30 days, Los Angeles police detectives will travel to Texas to pick up the recordings which had been held pending the outcome of the bankruptcy case, Smith said.
"We've got many unsolved homicide cases from that era here in Southern California and we're hoping maybe something on these tapes may tie the Manson family or any of these individuals to one of those homicides," he said.

Google channels King Canute ...

... believing the tide will always be going out, and having this opinion reinforced (temporarily, one suspects) by the Language Council of Sweden:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300066/There-thing-ungoogleable-Google-war-Sweden-plan-create-new-word-things-online.html

Swedish Language Council wants to introduce phrase 'ogooglebar'

Term for un-googleable was to mean 'cannot be found on search engine'

But Google said the word should only apply to Google, not any others

Swedish language experts then dropped the phrase

Case for the Prosecution - Independent and Public Interest

Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC MP considers some options for reform of prosecution policy. Originally given at Queen Mary University of London School of Law.

 "Until the last half of the Twentieth Century, in England and Wales, criminal offences were prosecuted by a curious mix of private individuals, police officers or police solicitors, county prosecutors and, oftentimes, local firms of solicitors." 

- read the rest of this rather elegant address at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-case-for-the-prosecution-independence-and-the-public-interest

Forensic analysis of power outage.

We were without electricity for some hours in the early hours of this morning, after a thunderstorm.

The local paper described the situation thus:

A BUILD up of dust and debris sparked a power pole fire this morning, causing about 700 local Powercor customers to lose their electricity supply.
A Powercor spokesman said the pole fire started about 3.30am at the corner of Sparrowhawk Road and Stray Street, Long Gully.
Power was restored to affected residents about 8.40am.
"It looks like the cause of the fire is what we call pollution," the spokesman said.
"It's basically dust and debris and other things, that during a dry spell, get caught up in the poles.
"When we have light rain like we did overnight, that stuff gets wet and makes contact with the conductor.
"That then sparks and starts a small fire which then causes a short and affects the power."
The power outage caused some traffic signals to stop working and police were called to divert traffic at Creeth Street and Eaglehawk Road.
Power technicians are believed to have replaced a cross arm and insulator on the power pole that was damaged by the fire.

 What a refreshing expert witness that spokesman would make!

Meanwhile in New Zealand ...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8449927/Court-use-of-hired-gun-experts-concerns

It's always difficult to evaluate this kind of media article, but this one is alarming:

New Zealand courts are turning more to "hired gun" expert witnesses, and it could lead to more miscarriages of justice, a leading forensic scientist says.
An Auckland University study released this week looked into the treatment of expert witnesses in New Zealand.
It said criminal courts and the Family Court were becoming more reliant on them, but experts mistrusted the courts so much they were refusing to give evidence.
Head researcher and former Whangarei Crown prosecutor Emily Henderson and Auckland University's Fred Seymour interviewed five district court judges, 27 experts and seven lawyers on the issue.
The experts complained of "grossly unfair treatment by cross-examiners and deeply flawed and inadequate processes for evaluating their evidence", they found.
The lawyers saw "real issues" with the way expert evidence was handled and welcomed the idea of changing the system.
The two main problems lawyers found with experts were bias and reluctance to attend, the researchers said.
"One, for example, was critical of New Zealand experts' reluctance to criticise each other, while two - one a prosecutor, one with extensive prosecutorial experience - raised concerns about bias amongst a small but prominent group of defence experts," they said.
Another said there were some highly opinionated "super-charismatic" experts who could influence juries by their presentation and who were "incredibly difficult to deal with" in cross-examination.
One lawyer said the experts were "scared about their own liability, scared of being made a fool of, scared of participating in a system that doesn't strike them as rational".
"Our interviewees also identified a small number of 'hired guns' or activist expert witnesses, some local but several from overseas, who appear regularly in the courts (especially for the defence) and whom they believe are seriously unethical in the way they represent the scientific issues to the court," the study said.
Extensive demands on their time, challenges to their competence and fear of making a mistake were cited as reasons for their reluctance.

I'd love some comments from New Zealand about this.

More on juries ...

http://juries.typepad.com/juries/

- highlights some of the differences between UK and US juries.

Standards

As my keynote address at the recent International Symposium on Emerging Paradigms in Forensic Science concerned standards, I found this very interesting:

http://touch.policeoracle.com/news/article.html?id=62256

The introduction of requirements for ISO standards in forensic science has been a long time coming; there are arguments for and against.

It is now being requred for police forces:

With all police forces requiring forensic accreditation by the end of 2013, PoliceOracle.com examines how this could be crucial in the courtroom

The reliability of forensic evidence in a criminal prosecution can often be called into question, but when that evidence is the only difference between a conviction and an acquittal, it can become a nightmare for a senior investigating officer.

That was the case in the murder of BBC television presenter Jill Dando, when a minute particle of firearms discharge residue was found in the jacket pocket of Barry George. He was acquitted during a retrial in 2008 after the evidence was ruled inadmissible, since the jacket could have been contaminated while at a police photographic studio, which housed ammunition.

Forensic science provision in the Police Service is now set to face further cross-examination in court as high standards are enshrined nationwide.

The service is currently pursuing two national forensic accreditations for all forces in England and Wales from the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS). This is to meet European Standard IO17025, as agreed in the Lisbon Treaty, which ensures in-house forensic specialisms have robust procedures, processes and training in place inside force laboratories.
With the first accreditation deadline for DNA labs in November this year, forces must ensure they comply or that their forensic service providers obtain the accreditation themselves.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is confident that all forces will achieve the first deadline, but a market leader in the Service has already set itself the target of obtaining complete accreditation.

Lancashire Constabulary believes IO17025 will prove vital in the courtroom and provide a safety net to scientific experts under cross examination from often intimidating barristers.
Opportunism from defence teams
It has not escaped many defence teams’ notice that the service’s forensic landscape has changed in the past year and a more fragmented approach is now being adopted between crime scene and court, following the closure of the Forensic Science Service (FSS). As forces increasingly insource their provision or use external providers – as is now the norm – defence counsel could seek to use this to their advantage, challenging forces over their standards on a case by case basis. While the FSS had a world-renowned reputation, forces are to an extent still in their infancy, and this is where the accreditation will help.

Lancashire Constabulary forensics operations manager Beth Joule said the force was already seeing anecdotal signs that barristers were challenging forensic evidence because it had been produced in-house.

I would love to get some comments on this!

Another (mis)interpreting story ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2292936/BBC-slammed-Pope-election-coverage-translator-fails-translate-Hail-Mary-Our-Father-prayers-correctly.html

'He is clearly not a Catholic! Viewers slam BBC's Pope election coverage after on-air translator fails to decipher the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary correctly

• On-air translator could not even turn the Lord’s Prayer into correct English
• Viewer tweeted: ‘BBC translator now in pits of despair and given up entirely’

Upcoming FL Conference Germany

Full Title: Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics
Short Title: GSFL

Date: 07-Sep-2013 - 08-Sep-2013
Location: Mainz, Germany
Contact Person: Iman Laversuch Nick
Meeting Email: mavi.yaz@web.de
Web Site: http://www.forensiclinguistics.eu/

Linguistic Field(s): Forensic Linguistics

Call Deadline: 15-Jun-2013

Meeting Description:

Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics (GSFL)
September 7-8 in Mainz, Germany

The Germanic Society of Forensic Linguistics (GSFL) is pleased to announce the 1st Annual Roundtable in Forensic Linguistics.

The purpose of the GSFL Roundtable is to provide researchers, teachers, and practitioners working within all sub-areas of forensic linguistics the opportunity to present and discuss their work within an interdisciplinary setting. For this reason the Roundtable will take place at the end of the 2013 International Summer School for Forensic Linguistic Analysis which this year will also be held in Mainz, Germany from September 2-6: http://www.forensiclinguistics.eu/.

Forensic Science Conference at Punjabi University

I am just back from the Forensic Science Symposium at the Punjabi University In Patiala, where I gave the keynote address. It was an excellent conference, inspiring in the depth and range of knowledge of the speakers, and the enthusiasm of the students. There is amazing scope for forensic phonetics and linguistics here too.

Spam spam spam

Dear Sir/Madam,

It is a great privilege for us to invite you for the upcoming
International combined conference meeting on Human Right and Global
Financial Crisis, taking place from May 6th  to 10th May 2013, here in
United States of America, California.

The aims of the conference is to bring together researchers and
practitioners in an effort to lay a ground work for future collaborative
research, advocacy, and program development as well as to educate social
service, health care and global financial sectors.

An expert faculty of speaker from Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa and USA
will present a comprehensive review of leaders to discuss relevant, timely
topics related to Global Financial Crisis with dynamic educational
sessions, invaluable networking functions, career advancement
opportunities and cutting-edge resources. The 3rd Annual ECD Conference &
Exhibition offers the most comprehensive learning experience in the field.

Registration is freely open to all interested participants; interested
participants should contact the conference secretariat via Email below for
more information for registration and accommodation.

Secretariat Email: wfpbca@aim.com

If you are a holder of passport that may require visa to enter the United
States, you are to inform the conference secretariat at the time of
sending your detail for registration, as the organizers of the event is
responsible for all visa arrangements and travel assistance.

Once again we thank you for taking out your time in your busy scheduled to
attend this conference meeting and we hope to see you at the event venue.

Yours Sincerely,
Ms. Angelina Ballerina
Program Coordinator

You don't have to be a forensic linguist to get suspicious of this one!