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TESTIFYING

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  643

2026-09-10

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TESTIFYING

When a forensic scientist steps into a courtroom to testify, he or she is, in essence, entering a foreign realm where only some of the rules of science apply. As Lee Goff, a noted forensic entomologist, has described it in his book, “A Fly for the Prosecution, the legal arena has its own rules and most, but not all, apply to the scientist as expert and they must abide by the rules; experts, however, have leeway in the courtroom that no other witnesses have. It is a strange intersection between science and the law where even words have different meanings. Take, for example, the word “error.” To a scientist, error is something that occurs naturally in all measurements and is accounted for in the statistics that are generated, such as “standard error of the mean.” Errors in science cannot be avoided and are reported in due process. An attorney, on the other hand, hears the word “error” and thinks: Mistake! The scientist has just admitted to doing something wrong, in the lawyer’s view, and has opened the door for further questioning. This “clash of cultures” does not always serve either side very well and may obscure what both parties seek. Another example, mentioned earlier in this chapter, is competence. To a scientist this connotes the ability to accomplish a task at a level of high quality. To an attorney, competence refers to a characteristic of evidence. It must be competent if it is to be admissible.