Mysteries in Crime - Case Study Example

Forensic science has a big role in our criminal justice today, as it help to unmask the truth and bring those individuals who cause murder and other related assaults to face the law. To understand how forensic science has developed throughout the ages, it will be very significant to briefly discuss some of its historical events. This article will try to explain the procedures that are utilized today that help forensic science investigators to explain the mysteries when it comes to crime. Moreover, it will explain the forensic aspects involved in the video “welcome to Homicide” and how they helped in getting the murderers. The article will also discuss other topics in forensic science and elaborate some of the key evidences that are used to close a particular case. Forensic science can be traced back in 18th century with the majority of the work taking place during 19th century. During that ancient time, people did not possess the technological and robust scientific advancements that we nowadays take for granted. Instead, they were relying on a forced confession, and other testimonies provided by the witnesses. This was not very helpful in getting justice to the assaults since it allowed several criminals to walk free and many innocent people being convicted wrongfully. The first recorded forensics was in the year 1248, when a Chinese man who was commonly referred to as death investigator performed an experiment to determine that a victim’s fatal blow was a result from the strike of a sickle (Ogden, 2010). What people perceive as forensic science seemed to have been born in china but got advanced development in Europe during the year 1700. Several scholars by then wrote books, developed different theories to explain some aspect of crime and practiced routines that later developed to be the mature crime scene investigation techniques. All these scholars like the Italian surgeons, Swedish chemist and other German experts borrowed their fundamentals from the Chinese man who started rote forensic. In USA, forensic science was adopted in the early 20th century in a few medical schools in eastern cities, which were medico-legal institution. Military firearm expert Calvin Goddard was one of the first people to use the new tool of forensic firearm identification. He was able to match weapons and cartridge cases and bullets that were recovered at St. Valentine day massacre of 1929. Because of Goddard’s work in the case, it led to the establishment of forensic laboratory in Chicago. In 1929, Dr. Paul kirk, who was a professor at the university of California developed the subject of forensic science and he established the philosophies that govern the practice to date. The first crime labs were established in Chicago and California in 1925 and 1924. The federal bureau of investigation lab was established in 1932 in Washington, D.C. it has now grown to be the largest forensic lab in USA. Today forensic science has developed greatly and had different branches including forensic biology, forensic toxicology, fingerprinting comparison among others (Brettell, Butler, & Almirall, 2011). In the mid 1970s, there was an exponential growth of forensic labs, with the existing labs expanding and new labs coming to being. Currently, there are more than 350 county, municipal, and state government forensic labs in U.S. There are also about 40 private for-profit laboratories and approximately 30 federal labs. Besides the FBI, firearms and explosives, alcohol, tobacco, drug enforcement administration among others, maintain forensic laboratory. Most of them are well specialised to perform examinations that support particular enforcement mission of their agencies. There are several things of forensic science that contribute to a criminal case. They include establishing elements of crime; identifying materials, substances or persons; supporting or casting doubts on statement of witness, accused, victims and providing leads to establish the linkages between the victim suspect and the scene. The contribution that forensic make depends on the case, the issue at hand and forensic speciality area. Forensic science usually helps to establish an element of the crime, and in a criminal case the state has the burden to proof to convict someone of the crime (Saks & Koehler, 2005). In forensic science, there is a paramount person known as a crime scene investigator, whose main work is to establish correctly, what had happened in the crime scene and identify the responsible person. A crime scene investigator carefully performs a search in the crime scene and recognises all the relevant physical evidence that are present and others that may be hidden to achieve this. It is imperative to note that the ability to correctly recognise and collect all the physical evidence is often critical to solving and prosecuting violent crimes. Therefore, in most cases the police or the first person to respond in a crime scene has a vital role in protecting the scene since the evidence gathered will be used to solve and prosecute the case. Despite the Hollywood movies portrayal of crime scene investigation as an easy piece of work, it is wise to note that crime scene investigation is a tasking job and time-consuming (Collins & Jarvis, 2009). There is always no substitute for a concise and thoughtful approach during investigation. Therefore, an investigator cannot presume facts and arrive at an immediate conclusion as to what has happened in a crime scene without gathering enough evidence. Patterns for reconstruction help to create a theory that helps to draw conclusion of the events that happened . There is an important constitutional based body of law that surrounds search by police and seizures of places. The investigators and police officers must always know it well that is rooted in the fourth amendment in the U.S constitution. It states that: the people right to be secure in their individual, papers, houses, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be breached. But upon a probable cause supported by the oath or affirmation describing a particular place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized. In this scenario, the suspect has his right but because there is a probable cause a search warrant must be issued to complete the investigation. However, in the U.S laws, as reaffirmed by Arizona Supreme Court, the warrantless search of a homicide scene is constitutionally permissible thus; a search was to be done to validate the truth (Ribaux, Walsh, & Margot, 2006). As a forensic investigator, an initial survey and evidence recognition in the crime scene is the first important aspect of investigation to be done. It shall have a major advantage of limiting access to the scene as well as avoiding extraneous marks or trace elements that may lead to destruction of the available evidence in the scene. The scene will be surrounded with the crime scene tape to avoid entry of unauthorised people, and then the task of evidence collection is started in logical order. A systematic search then follows to identify all the possible evidence. Since as a team we shall have formulated a hypothesis from the initial search to guide the search team, evidence will be collected to link the victim with the scene as well as evidence of corpus delicti. In this scenario, it was a blood stain in the car and the clothes. Documenting crime scene usually includes recording the details in the scene such as weather, lighting, or moved object. Documentation involves taking of photographs, sketches and video. To maintain the credibility of the photographs and video taken, the photographer must maintain a log listing each picture taken, the photographic condition and other settings used. Since photos may sometimes appear differently when taken at different angles. Evidence identification is an imperative step as it involves collecting and numbering the evidence collected as well as ensuring that they are preserved in a condition suitable for subsequent lab analysis. The evidence gives brief description on how they look or appear at the scene of the crime. Certain evidences in the scene such as bullet cartridges and shoe prints are very fragile and should always be collected immediately since they can be easily destroyed or lost. The scope of the search and investigations also extends to consideration of some facts that may be generated in the case such as suicide attempts or self-defence. Documentation of such conditions helps to either expunge or support the facts that are key in investigations and to the investigators. The collected specimen are preserved in proper containers that are well labelled to avoid confusion. The blood sample obtained in the scene was collected and preserved in a container that is special to maintain all its components, so as it can be compared with any is late suspected somewhere. Moreover, the cloth was to be handled with care to avoid destruction of the body fluid or other biological evidence from the suspect hands. In the video, “welcome home”, documenting all the available evidence was very vital to get the truth. A bloodhound could have given a possible lead to where the crime took place, and the suspect could be easily got. The investigation team had several investigators doing specific task to uncover the available pieces of evidence with all working towards a common goal. The chain of custody of the evidence is one of the aspects that helps the courts to race individuals who have handled the evidence gathered from the scene to the court. It is good for a chain of custody to be maintained during a forensic investigation as it helps in marinating the admissibility of the evidence to the prosecution (Fraser & Williams, 2009). In essence, the state should adequately account for who had stored, custody and control of all the items that were seized from the crime scene for them to admissible. Moreover, if the chain of custody is broken or not cleared then there can be a possibility of tampering and alteration of the collected evidence. Crime scene analysis and reconstruction is the climax of piecing the evidence together to obtain a logical flow of events that happened during the crime. It is always not possible to fully reconstruct a crime basing only on the physical evidence. However, some reconstructions must be attempted by the investigators to get the flow of events, for example interpreting the blood pattern and witness accounts. In the movie, the blood and prints found in the car provided good evidence and a clue to start performing a forensic investigation. Moreover, the eyewitness account at the complex that remembers seeing the vehicle that the victim was found in providing a strong clue towards the exact crime scene. Combine the scene thoroughly led to recovery of the shirt that was used to muffle and conceal a weapon, which was used to fire the shots on the victim's head. The medical investigator and the weapon specialist were able to determine weapon that was used. This thwarted the suspect’s testimony, which was, in fact, a possible a third person at the place where the murder took place. A modus operandi can also be used to get the suspect since the majority of killers to avoid being noticed uses this pattern of murder. However, there is always a trace of evidence they leave behind thus leading to their identity (Commons, 2005). Just like in the case the suspect was seen by an eyewitness as well as the blood stained found in the residence. The 3D model made by the photographers and a video crew helped the investigators to piece their evidence together and formulate their theories to what had happened. The 3D model helped them to come into conclusion that the suspect committed the crime alone and had gotten no assistance from somewhere. For a forensic investigator to come to a conclusion on identifying and linking an individual to an assault or murder, there must be plenty of evidence that must be laid against the accused. In this video strong evidence were laid against the suspect they include, the eyewitness account who saw the accused at the residence of the deceased. The burnt shirt that was found in the trash and the blood spots found on the carpet. Moreover, all the other evidence that were collected including confession proven without reasonable doubt that the suspect had committed murder of the deceased. Teamwork is very vital in crime investigations; it is good for different forensic scientist in different fields to work together in unmasking all the chronological events that happened during a crime. In summary, forensic science is the best method of identifying individuals who break the law and hide their identity so as not to face justice. Forensic science investigators provide all the evidence that is needed in any crime scene so as to link an individual with a crime. In the case in the video of “Welcome to homicide” all necessary procedure in a search, evidence collection and custody of evidence were observed. The suspect is guilty as per the evidence that is hereby presented before the honourable court. The evidence herein includes the eyewitness account, and the blood stained on the carpet, the cloth in the rash and to crown it is the confession of the witness. In this murder case, the law must take its course, and the deceased and her family must get justice as required. Reference Brettell, T. A., Butler, J. M., & Almirall, J. R. (2011). Applications review: Forensic science. Analytical Chemistry, 83, 4539–4556.  Collins, J. M., & Jarvis, J. (2009). The Wrongful Conviction of Forensic Science. Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal. Commons, H. O. (2005). Forensic science on trial. Science Justice Journal of the Forensic Science Society, 48, 98. Fraser, J., & Williams, R. (2009). Handbook of forensic science. In Using forensic science in major crime inquiries (pp. 337–358). Ogden, R. (2010). Forensic Science. Forensic Science, 6, 278–296. doi:10.1021/ac201075e Ribaux, O., Walsh, S. J., & Margot, P. (2006). The contribution of forensic science to crime analysis and investigation: Forensic intelligence. Forensic Science International, 156, 171–181. Saks, M. J., & Koehler, J. J. (2005). The coming paradigm shift in forensic identification science. Science (New York, N.Y.), 309, 892–895. Read More