"Haiku" killer?

http://news.sky.com/story/1119415/haiku-writing-serial-killer-hunted-in-japan

Detectives are hunting a poetry-writing suspected serial killer in western Japan.

A murder investigation was launched after the bodies of five people were found in a tiny mountain village in Yamaguchi province.
Three bodies were found in two houses that had been burned to the ground.
Two more people found nearby had been battered to death.
All five victims were in their 70s or 80s, police said.
The chief suspect is a 63-year-old villager, whose name has not been released.
Police said they found a haiku poem - a traditional Japanese three-line verse - stuck to the window of his home.
It read: "Setting a fire - smoke gives delight - to a country fellow."
The man has a reputation as a troublemaker in the village, Japan's popular Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.
He once boasted to neighbours that he would escape prosecution if he killed people because he is on medication, the report added.

Turmeric powder to be used in forensics

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1863665/report-turmeric-powder-to-be-used-in-forsenics

Research claims, the Indian herb turmeric works wonders at the crime scene.

Turmeric powder is now all set to enter the scene of forensic investigations. According to recent research in the United Kingdom, when used in a crime scene, turmeric powder enhances the visibility of invisible or latent fingerprints and helps detect a wide-range of molecules present in fingerprints needed to trace the accused. While it’s easy to detect visible fingerprints, latent ones require some means to enhance their visibility.
The research, which was published in the April issue of journal Analytical Chemistry, also says that turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin, can enhance invisible impressions more effectively than traditional dust powders like aluminum, and florescent or magnet-sensitive powder.

The lead researcher, Dr Simona Francese, told dna, “The Indian herb turmeric works wonders at the crime scene. It is not only a fingermark enhancer but also acts as a chemical to aid the ionisation, detection and visualisation of molecules present in the fingermark, using cutting-edge technology called matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometric (MALDI-MS)imaging.”
Dr Francese, who is also a senior lecturer in the Biomedical Sciences Department at UK's Sheffield Hallam University adds, “We have now started a field trial with the west Yorkshire police.”
When combined with other forensic tests, turmeric powder will give valuable information on the suspect’s activities before committing the crime.
“We dust for fingermarks with curcumin, lift them off the surface and then spray a mist of solvent, enabling the dissolution and crystallisation of curcumin with molecules present in fingermarks while maintaining their spatial localisation,” she elaborates. When sent for analysis, the fingermark ridge pattern will be reconstructed and lipids, proteins, drugs will be detected.
Dr Francese attributes her work to Indian scientist Rakesh Kumar Garg. Prof Garg is head of the forensics department at Punjabi University, Patiala. In 2011, he discovered that turmeric could be used to visualise fingermarks on different surfaces and SHU’s Fingermark Research group took up Garg’s discovery. “We want to include curcumin among other forensic powders that are recommended by the Home Office,” she says.

Junk science? "Forensic linguistic evidence" in Kansas

http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/27/2820560/judge-rules-against-paying-linguistic.html

Judge rules against paying linguistic forensic analyst in sexual assault case

• By Hurst Laviana
• The Wichita Eagle

• Published Monday, May 27, 2013, at 6:21 a.m.

The defense says it’s a cutting-edge tool that can out ferret out false statements and might keep an innocent man from going to prison.

The prosecution calls it pseudo-science – a gimmick that has no place in a Kansas courtroom.

A Sedgwick County judge settled part of the argument this month when he ruled that Kansas taxpayers won’t be paying $5,000 to an Oregon man who was hired to see if two sisters, ages 13 and 16, were lying when they said they were raped by Robert Contreras.

District Judge Warren Wilbert initially approved the payment but changed his mind after Board of Indigent Services director Pat Scalia walked into his courtroom and balked at making the payment.

She said the range of expert services available to indigent criminal defendants in Kansas is limited. “Structural forensic linguistic analysis” is not one of the covered fields.

“There’s a limit to what taxpayers can bear,” she told Wilbert. “This is not a service that is recognized by the state of Kansas.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/27/2820560/judge-rules-against-paying-linguistic.html#storylink=cpy

Should a suspect actually understand the caution?

It would seem obvious, and the 9th Circuit says Miranda warning must be given in correct Spanish

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-miranda-spanish-20130715,0,7846032.story

but if you read the comments, not everyone agrees:

dglvr1 at 1:10 PM July 16, 2013

What if the suspect is German or French or Chinese, or Russian?????  Does the Officer have to be Fluent in these languages also??.  We bend over and grab our ankles for the Mexicans......deport them all if they can't speak ENGLISH~~!!

impoundguy at 8:20 AM July 16, 2013

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a drug and gun conviction on the grounds that a district judge erred by admitting comments made by the suspect after he was given the Miranda warning in English and poor Spanish. HERE'S AN IDEA....How about if the supects learn poor English instead of us having to master Spanish!!!

DisposableScreenName at 7:47 PM July 15, 2013

Farewell America! You barely made 237 years and if we reminisce back through 50-60 years of flawed court activism, it might be said you didn't even break 200 years of freedom and liberty.

But its all over now. We've been invaded by perverts, illegal aliens and a virus of liberal interpretation that has all but extinguished the light of liberty.

RIP America, it was nice knowing you!

More on the Zimmerman case

SANFORD, Fla. – Judge Debra Nelson said late Tuesday night that she will rule Wednesday on whether cell phone data showing Trayvon Martin had a penchant for fighting — and was seeking to purchase a gun — will be allowed as evidence in the second-degree murder trial against George Zimmerman.
“This is absolutely compelling evidence and it’s highly relevant,” argued Zimmerman attorney Don West Tuesday evening.
Orlando-based computer forensics expert Richard Connor was able to unlock data contained in Martin’s cell phone. Connor used Cellebrite software to delve into Martin’s phone and access “secret text messages,” including .bin files which contain “all the data, all the files” in a cell phone’s memory. That data was not reported in the analysis of Martin’s cell phone turned over by the state.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/09/judge-to-consider-allowing-martins-texts-in-zimmerman-case/#ixzz2YjEtfCyN

Looking for material for my paper on how mistakes / frauds in Forensic Science are represented by the press ...

There is no shortage of material, of course! For example:

http://www.popsci.com.au/science/fyi-what-do-forensic-chemists-do-and-why-would-they-cheat:

"Earlier this fall, a forensic chemist at the Massachusetts-based crime lab William A. Hinton State Laboratory was charged with obstruction of justice. Annie Dookhan allegedly mixed drug samples, neglected to test them properly and forged colleagues' signatures throughout her nine-year career to drive up her productivity. She might not have even received the master's degree she claimed to have (University of Massachusetts officials are denying her credentials). Now a grand jury is investigating the case and is expected to return indictments against the disgraced chemist some time after today. The story is like something straight out of "Law & Order."
Which got us wondering: What exactly do forensic chemists do? And why might some feel compelled to cheat?
In crime television shows, investigators brush evidence into tiny baggies in leaky warehouses, then send the samples off to the crime lab. Minutes later, the results magically materialize, the bad guy gets convicted, and everyone else lives happily ever after.
But as Dookhan's case suggests, the reality is much less tidy and offers a dark portrait of the perverse incentives of a key aspect of the criminal justice system.
Forensic chemists are, first and foremost, scientists. These technicians usually have degrees in biology, chemistry, biochemistry or forensic science, and are trained in the sanctity of the scientific method. They specialize in either drug analysis, toxicology or arson and explosives. Adam Hall, an instructor at Boston University's School of Medicine, says drug analysts examine the five Ps: pills, plants, paraphernalia, powders and precursors (substances obtained from chemicals that are synthesized into new drugs.)" 

Other links / discussion gratefully received!

A view on fonts ...

http://theweek.com/article/index/245632/how-typeface-influences-the-way-we-read-and-think

Sometimes fonts speak louder than words. 

 

"Last summer, CERN was on the verge of announcing a discovery so critical to understanding the basic building blocks of the universe that it had been given a divine name: The God particle.

The hunt for the Higgs boson was one of the most expensive and labor-intensive particle physics projects ever undertaken, and promised to answer the fundamental but elusive question of why our atoms stick together in the first place. And yet, when CERN researchers finally announced that they'd glimpsed the Higgs, the world's first reaction wasn't to cheer; it was to stifle collective laughter. The institution's scientists, cradling the most important scientific discovery of the decade, had chosen to present their findings to a breathless public using a peculiar font face: Comic Sans MS."

 

How convincing is this for a forensic point of view?