Good Law | Bad Law - Bias in Police Crime Labs: A Conversation w/ Sandra Thompson & Nicole Casarez
08/07/20 • 51 min
Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, of the University of Houston, and Professor Nicole Bremner Casarez, of the University of St. Thomas Houston, to discuss forensic testing, wrongful convictions, and the necessity for transparency and reliable testing in the criminal justice system, as well as one of the world’s leading independent crime labs.
In today’s episode, Aaron, Sandra, and Nicole delve into the issues of forensic science and impartiality. In their recent Houston Law Review article, “Solving Daubert’s Dilemma for the Forensic Sciences Through Blind Testing,” Nicole and Sandra describe a major breakthrough in developing a statistical foundation for forensic science disciplines: a cutting-edge blind proficiency testing program operating in six disciplines at the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC). Sandra is a charter member of the Board of Directors of the HFSC and now serves as the Vice Chair; Nicole is also a charter member of the Board of Directors and served as the Board Chair from July 2015 to June 2019. In today’s conversation, Sandra and Nicole explain their article and HFSC’s operations further, as the discussion focuses on blind testing, ground truths, error rates, and more. Aaron, Nicole and Sandra apply these ideas to the broader context of today as the conversation evolves to cover police operations, biases and conflicts, police reform, and the notion of accuracy in our justice system.
A Yale Law graduate, Sandra is the Newell H. Blakely Professor in Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching courses in Criminal Law, Evidence, Hot Topics in Criminal Law and Procedure, and Criminal Evidence. She is the recipient of the University of Houston’s Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Aware in 2015, as well as the Teaching Excellence Award in 2003 and the Ethel Baker Faculty Aware in 2000. Her recent book is Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions with Independent Forensic Laboratories (Carolina Academic Press 2015). Professor Thompson has written articles on subjects including: wrongful convictions, eyewitness identifications, forensic science, civil asset forfeiture, federal sentencing, discrimination in jury selection, prosecutorial ethics, police interrogations, and immigration crimes.
Nicole is an attorney and a Professor of Communication at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Her areas of expertise include Media Law, Wrongful Conviction, Media Ethics, Public Relations and Civil Rights. Professor Casarez’s journalism students investigate many capital and non-capital cases, including the case of Texas death row inmate Anthony Graves that drew state and national attention; Casarez was one of the lawyers representing Graves at the time of his exoneration in 2010.
Listen in to learn more!
To learn more about Professor Thompson, please visit her bio page at the University of Houston here.
To learn more about Professor Casarez, please visit her bio page at the University of St. Thomas, Houston here.
To learn more about the Houston Forensic Science Center, please visit their website here.
To read “Solving Daubert’s Dilemma for the Forensic Sciences Through Blind Testing,” please click here.
Host: Aaron Freiwald
Guests: Sandra Guerra Thompson & Nicole Casarez
Follow Good Law | Bad Law:
YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law
Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW
Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw
Website: https://www.law-podcast.com
Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, of the University of Houston, and Professor Nicole Bremner Casarez, of the University of St. Thomas Houston, to discuss forensic testing, wrongful convictions, and the necessity for transparency and reliable testing in the criminal justice system, as well as one of the world’s leading independent crime labs.
In today’s episode, Aaron, Sandra, and Nicole delve into the issues of forensic science and impartiality. In their recent Houston Law Review article, “Solving Daubert’s Dilemma for the Forensic Sciences Through Blind Testing,” Nicole and Sandra describe a major breakthrough in developing a statistical foundation for forensic science disciplines: a cutting-edge blind proficiency testing program operating in six disciplines at the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC). Sandra is a charter member of the Board of Directors of the HFSC and now serves as the Vice Chair; Nicole is also a charter member of the Board of Directors and served as the Board Chair from July 2015 to June 2019. In today’s conversation, Sandra and Nicole explain their article and HFSC’s operations further, as the discussion focuses on blind testing, ground truths, error rates, and more. Aaron, Nicole and Sandra apply these ideas to the broader context of today as the conversation evolves to cover police operations, biases and conflicts, police reform, and the notion of accuracy in our justice system.
A Yale Law graduate, Sandra is the Newell H. Blakely Professor in Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching courses in Criminal Law, Evidence, Hot Topics in Criminal Law and Procedure, and Criminal Evidence. She is the recipient of the University of Houston’s Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Aware in 2015, as well as the Teaching Excellence Award in 2003 and the Ethel Baker Faculty Aware in 2000. Her recent book is Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions with Independent Forensic Laboratories (Carolina Academic Press 2015). Professor Thompson has written articles on subjects including: wrongful convictions, eyewitness identifications, forensic science, civil asset forfeiture, federal sentencing, discrimination in jury selection, prosecutorial ethics, police interrogations, and immigration crimes.
Nicole is an attorney and a Professor of Communication at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Her areas of expertise include Media Law, Wrongful Conviction, Media Ethics, Public Relations and Civil Rights. Professor Casarez’s journalism students investigate many capital and non-capital cases, including the case of Texas death row inmate Anthony Graves that drew state and national attention; Casarez was one of the lawyers representing Graves at the time of his exoneration in 2010.
Listen in to learn more!
To learn more about Professor Thompson, please visit her bio page at the University of Houston here.
To learn more about Professor Casarez, please visit her bio page at the University of St. Thomas, Houston here.
To learn more about the Houston Forensic Science Center, please visit their website here.
To read “Solving Daubert’s Dilemma for the Forensic Sciences Through Blind Testing,” please click here.
Host: Aaron Freiwald
Guests: Sandra Guerra Thompson & Nicole Casarez
Follow Good Law | Bad Law:
YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law
Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW
Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw
Website: https://www.law-podcast.com
Previous Episode
Good Law | Bad Law - Defund the Police? A Conversation w/ Alex Vitale
What does it mean to “defund the police”?
Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Alex S. Vitale, of Brooklyn College, to discuss “defunding” the police.
Many protester signs carry this slogan. And the President is stoking fears among voters through his dark “911” video political ads. Aaron and Alex dive deep into the topic to explore what it would actually mean to end policing as we know it.
What role have police played in our communities historically? Whose safety and interests were the police protecting? Slaves or Slave-owners? Workers or Industrialists? Is the ideal we all have that police are in the business of keeping all of us safe, all of us equally safe more a myth than a reality?
Should police be in the business of “law enforcement” in schools? Rounding up the homeless and the mentally ill? Filling our prisons with low-level drug offenders? Should these functions be in the hands of counselors and social workers and other community oriented professionals, rather than armed police?
Do police reforms even work? The police department in Minneapolis that employed the officer who killed George Floyd offered training in implicit bias; had policies and procedures; had committed to greater diversity in hiring,
Are there better ways to spend the vast resources now spent on policing? Could we improve public safety better, actually reduce suffering and crime if we dedicated resources to communities in need and attacked the roots of social and economic harm that give rise to crime?
These are challenging and difficult questions. We need to have a conversation about this and understand the facts and not react reflexively. We hope this episode is a start.
Alex is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Justice, as well as a Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and is a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. Professor Vitale’s expertise is in sociology, policing, community policing, civil disorder, demonstrations, crime, alternatives to incarceration, youth violence, gangs, drug policy, school safety, sex work, social movements and urban politics. In addition to The End of Policing, Alex is also the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York. His academic writings on policing have appeared in Policing and Society, Police Practice and Research, Mobilization, and Contemporary Sociology. Professor Vitale is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Vice News, Fortune, and USA Today.
Listen in to learn more!
To learn more about Professor Vitale, please visit his bio page here.
Please out check out Alex’s personal website here for further publications, resources, announcements and more.
To learn more about Alex’s book, The End of Policing, please click here.
To learn more about the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College please visit their website here.
Host: Aaron Freiwald
Guest: Alex S. Vitale
Follow Good Law | Bad Law:
YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law
Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW
Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw
Website: https://www.law-podcast.com
Next Episode
Good Law | Bad Law -Vote! Vote! Vote! A Conversation w/ Kelly Chambers
Register!!
Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Kelly Chambers, the lead Field Organizer for HeadCount’s in Philadelphia, to discuss voting and voter registration. A non-partisan organization, Headcount uses the power of music, art, pop-culture and community to promote participation in democracy.
Founded in 2004 by Andy Bernstein and musician Marc Brownstein, of the Disco Biscuits, HeadCount has deep roots in the music industry and continues to expanded on its original idea of meeting people where they already are. As we are now less than 100 days from Election Day and in our sixth month of a global pandemic, HeadCount continues to innovate. Kelly and Aaron talk about HeadCount’s recent projects and campaigns, including their digital presence, use of QR and text codes, and social media channels. HeadCount and its volunteers seek to spark positive social action and energize people to get involved by making civic participation easy and fun.
In today’s conversation, Aaron and Kelly address the challenges of the pandemic and voting, the misconceptions and misinformation around mail-in ballots, voter suppression, voting ease and accessibility, and more. Kelly and Aaron discuss the upcoming November election and the importance of our vote. What do you need to know? Listen now to find out!
Since their creation, HeadCount has signed up over 600,000 voters through their work with touring musicians like Ariana Grande, Dead & Company, and Beyonce, and events like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Pride Festivals and RuPaul’s DragCon. Their digital campaigns have won Clio and SHORTY awards, and their public service announcements have starred the likes of Jay-Z, Dave Matthews, members of the Grateful Dead and Brockhampton. More information about these initiatives and events can be found on their website linked below.
To learn more about HeadCount and how you can get involved, please visit the website headcount.org here. On their site you will find resources, as well as all the important information on voting registration and mail-in voting.
Don’t forget the deadline to register in Pennsylvania is October 19th! Check in your state to make sure you register before the applicable deadline where you live.
Host: Aaron Freiwald
Guest: Kelly Chambers | [email protected]
Follow Good Law | Bad Law:
YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law
Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW
Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw
Website: https://www.law-podcast.com
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