Why can’t courts solve problems related to forensics evidence on a case-by-case basis?
Schwartz: Using case-by-case decisions by courts to solve systemic problems takes a long time, at best. In the process, individuals inevitably suffer from wrongful verdicts. The history of nuclear DNA profiling can be used to explain the problems with a case-by-case approach. Although there were fundamental scientific problems with nuclear DNA profiling when it was first introduced into court in 1987, by 1996 these problems had been solved. As the NAS Report recognizes, this scientific progress was due, in large part, to the vigorous courtroom challenges that spurred the highly critical NAS Report on forensic DNA in 1992 and to the courtroom challenges that were advanced on the basis of the 1992 report. Unfortunately, courtroom challenges to the traditional forensic sciences are unlikely to be as effective at spurring scientific progress as the courtroom challenges to forensic DNA. Forensic DNA analysis was rooted in research science; molecular biologists, population geneticists, and s
