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Sunday, March 12, 2006
Law - "Jury is still out on expert witnesses"
"Jury is still out on expert witnesses" is the headline to a long and comprehensive article today by Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal. Some quotes:
Expert witnesses have been the objects of derision since at least 1897, when a Harvard Law Review writer said there are "three kinds of liars: the common liar, the damned liar, and the scientific expert."And for just as long, there have been questions about how to regulate the experts, who are hired by opposing sides in criminal and civil trials — and even proposals to replace them with experts appointed by the court.
Yet experts are now more ubiquitous then ever. One directory alone, expertpages.com, lists 3,700 in more than 400 categories, from amusement park rides to aerosol sprays, feng shui to fungus, memory recall to metaphysics.
In the recent trial of the former Indiana State trooper David Camm that ended with his convictions on three counts of murder, there were eight blood experts alone — one for each drop of blood found on Camm's T-shirt on the night in September 2002 that his wife and children were murdered.
Four of the experts testified for the prosecution that the blood droplets spattered onto Camm when a bullet was fired into his daughter's head. Four testified for the defense that the blood smeared on him when he went to his family's aid, after they already were dead.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 12, 2006 01:34 PM
Posted to General Law Related | Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions | Indiana Courts | Indiana Law