New papers on Author Attribution

The proceedings of the Authorship Attribution Workshop, held at Brooklyn Law School in October 2012, have now been published in Brooklyn Law School’s Journal of Law & Policy.  The volume is online, and accessible without charge from the web page of the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition.

  http://www.brooklaw.edu/intellectuallife/centerforlawlanguageandcognition/publications.aspx

 

Several Murder Confessions Taken by Brooklyn Detective Have Similar Language

Whilst police statements and reports do tend to follow a set format and therefore may appear to be suspicious when in fact they are not, this case goes way beyond this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/nyregion/several-murder-confessions-taken-by-brooklyn-detective-have-similar-language.html?_r=0

As the Brooklyn homicide detective Louis Scarcella told it, the suspect in a ruthless home invasion that left one man dead and two more people in a coma started talking after just a few minutes of questioning.

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CBS Television/Peteski Productions

Louis Scarcella, who retired in 1999, on the "Dr. Phil" show in 2007.

Related

DOCUMENT: ‘I Was There’ Confessions

“You got it right,” the suspect, Jabbar Washington, said. “I was there.”

The phrase was straightforward and damning, introducing the central piece of evidence that sent him to prison for 25 years to life. At the 1997 trial, Mr. Scarcella told the jury that it was the easiest confession he had obtained in more than two decades working for the Police Department.

But if the interrogation was unique for him, the wording was not. In at least four more murder cases, suspects questioned by Mr. Scarcella began their confessions with either “you got it right” or “I was there.”

Excellent post on the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators blog

When Justice has no choice but to be unfair

Her poise did not disguise her youth. Articulate as she was, one could not help but feel her insecurities. She was introduced as the interpreter for her step-father. Her first confident words were “I don’t think I can do this, but I will try. I don’t understand any of this.”
The judge was not dissuaded. This was not the defendant’s first time in front of her in this case. The last continuance was granted because he insisted he needed an interpreter. He was instructed to get one at his own expense. The hearing would go on.
It was not a simple case. There were fatalities, uncertainties surrounding the sequence of events, expert witness testimony, depositions in three different languages, three different interpreters, reports. She stood by her step-father and did her best, requesting numerous repetitions, explanations, clarifications. She did not give up.

Read the rest, plus readers' comments, at http://najit.org/blog/?p=1340

I don't like bullies either ...

http://www.legalcheek.com/2013/06/lawyers-swaggering-response-to-ham-fisted-cease-and-desist-letter-goes-viral/

Lawyer’s swaggering response to ‘ham-fisted’ cease and desist letter goes viral. The letter:

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The response:
 
and so on - it's worth a read!

An Interlude in India.

Apologies for the gap in postings - I have just returned from a week in India, talking Forensics.
As always, I was impressed by the depth of scholarship in India, on the one hand - and in the other - the wonderful hospitality.

This amazing snack is Khakhra:

The Acoustics of Screaming

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-screaming-experts-testify-today/story?id=19345658#.UbZaqsw_7oo

Two forensic experts testified today that they believe the voice of someone screaming for help moments before Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was shot dead belong to Martin and not to George Zimmerman, the man accused of murder in Martin's death.
But the legal arguments over the tapes will continue into the weekend as prosecutors and defense lawyers wrangle over the testimony of experts who disagree over who is screaming and whether the technology exists to identify the voice.
Judge Debra Nelson is being asked to rule on whether the tapes can be admitted as evidence in the murder trial that is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.
The screams were heard in the background of 911 tapes as people called in during the lethal confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin.
Lawyers for Zimmerman claim the voice belongs to their client while prosecutors insist it is Martin's last words before he was fatally shot on Feb. 26, 2012. Determining who was that voice could make or break Zimmerman's assertion that he shot Martin in self defense.
During the pretrial hearing forensic experts disagreed over who is doing the screaming on the tape and an FBI expert testified earlier this week that it is impossible to determine which man was yelling for help.