Forensic science

“ Many anthropological and medical facts, now appropriated by criminology and penal science, are useful in proving not only the present but in attesting future identity, thereby preventing in great measure the dissimulation of prisoners, deserters, false claimants to life insurance, fraudulent pensioners, and the like. ”

“ For each criminal case is a problem separate unto itself, and there may not be brought to it more than a trained, logical, imaginative mind, which may unfold it and see all the possibilities. There is but the occasional call upon science, and the good detective knows when to consult the specialist. ”

“ Intimate contact with members of the legal profession, both professionally and socially, for some years past has convinced me that the average lawyer still looks upon the ideas concerning crime and the criminal expressed by physicians of a forensic bent as totally unpractical and visionary. ”

“ From such a requisition he has no escape; he cannot shift his responsibility to another, and it behoves him, therefore, to acquire a knowledge of Forensic Medicine, in order to guide him, when so called upon, to give such evidence as will enable a judge and jury to arrive at a just conclusion. The relations of all medical practitioners to the State are twofold—first, as healers of disease, and secondly, both as guardians of the innocent against unfounded criminal charges and aids towards the detection and punishment of crime. ”

“ But per contra, when these eminent medical men discover, within the tissues of the deceased, plain evidences of the fact that a crime has been consummated, it then becomes the duty of the District Attorney to prosecute the accused, and to produce, before a jury of his countrymen, the evidence which these gentlemen of science have discovered. And this class of evidence is not only valuable, and pertinent, but it is indispensable. Without the assistance of experts, it would be almost impossible to convict a man of murder, by the use of poison. ”

“ The microscope and the spectroscope have been employed in numerous cases of murder and forgery where less subtle means of discovery would have proved useless; chemical analysis has become an important agent of detection, while photography has also rendered signal service in the cause of justice. We may not have concerned ourselves with the numerous methods by which bank-note forgeries are detected; hitherto our references have been mainly to the more serious crime of murder, and with a few instances of this character brought to light through modern science our list must close. ”

“ If the evidence points clearly to a particular person as the murderer, we shall name that person in the verdict. But we are not primarily investigating a crime; we are investigating a death. The criminal investigation is for the police. ”

“ I will begin what I have to say by remarking that the tracing out of a crime like this differs in nothing, except as regards the subject-matter, from the search for a scientific truth. The forcing of man's secrets is like the forcing of nature's secrets. Both are pieces of detective work. The methods employed in the detection of crime are, or rather should be, like the methods employed in the process of discovering scientific truth. In a crime of this sort, two kinds of evidence need to be secured. Circumstantial evidence must first be marshalled, and then a motive must be found. ”

“ In assaults, it measures the amount of injury. In rape, it sustains or invalidates direct evidence itself; and in its most interesting applications it forms a part—and in general a most important part—of a chain of circumstantial evidence, where direct evidence is not attainable—as in secret murders, attempted assassinations, poisoning, and similar crimes. I may here observe, that it is in this last class of cases medical science has achieved its most signal triumphs, and conferred upon the administration of justice the most striking, if not the most important benefits. ”

“ In some of the unsolved mysteries that have occurred during the last few years the presence of a highly trained intellect at the first hour of the investigation might conceivably have led to the detection of the criminal. As a rule, it is only after the first examination is over and the case appears likely to be a difficult one, that the best brains of the department are brought to bear upon the facts, and it may then be too late for effective action. ”

“ In a question of forgery, poisoning, or abortion, the judge has recourse to experts in handwriting, chemistry, or obstetrics; but beyond these technical, special, and less frequent cases, in every criminal trial the basis of inquiry is or ought to be formed by the data of criminal biology, psychology, and psycho-pathology. So that, over and above the knowledge of these sciences which is necessary to judges, magistrates, and police officers, it is most important that an expert, or several experts in criminal anthropology should be attached to every court of criminal inquiry. ”

“ The revelation of the crime, the obscurity of the victims, the length of time elapsing between the perpetration and the discovery, the mystery enveloping the deed with an apparently impregnable mantle, and the swift following detection and apprehension of the perpetrators, all combine to form the basis for one of the most interesting narratives ever found in criminal or detective literature. ”

“ Suppose that some person, some one who had the opportunity, had committed a murder. By removing the body of your husband, and replacing it with that of his victim, the evidences of his own crime would be concealed. The discovery of your husband's body, even if identified, as it has been, could lead to little else than mystification, for the criminal well knew that the autopsy would show natural causes of death. ”

“ For the defence, witnesses stated that the prisoner was in possession of sheets stained in exactly the same way, and that the cask was one of those in which he had received cranberries from Norwich, all of which casks were marked in the same manner. The prisoner was acquitted.
Scientific testimony is another form of the so-called “circumstantial evidence,” and as such is sometimes looked upon with suspicion. Yet in how few cases is it possible to produce the man who can say, “I saw the deed done,” and even in such cases, what errors of identification may occur! ”

“ There are also some matters of fact which apparently transcend the dividing line between common experience and judgment and scientific experience and judgment, as to which expert testimony is not receivable, but the jury and court must weigh the facts and draw the inferences for themselves. ”

“ It can not be denied, however, that modern aspects of science and present-day tendencies in research have largely increased the resemblance between the enforced duties of the criminal investigator and the self-imposed task of the biologist. ”

“ After these results of judicial medical investigation, the public need be under no apprehension. No doubt intelligent and clever criminals, with a view to thwart the surgeons, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons little known by the mass, and difficult of detection, but science is on the alert, and soon overcomes all difficulty; penetrating into the utmost depths of our organs, it brings out the proof of the crime, and furnishes one of the greatest pieces of evidence against the guilty. ”

“ Some of these processes are well understood and some little understood by man. As is the case with electrical and other forms of scientific research the field of scientific criminal detection hardly has been scratched. Research is constant and no doubt will be perpetual. No one knows where any sort of research will lead. Scientific detectives call attention to this fact:
"Such research is valuable not only in the matter of law enforcement but might prove of inestimable value in other fields. ”

“ In the same manner that a very small portion or fragment of the human body may suffice to establish the corpus delicti, so will minute remains or traces, as finger-marks, footprints, and other material surroundings, even smells or traces of perfume, be of great assistance to justice in determining the identity of both culprit and victim, and at the same time throw light on the attendant circumstances of the deed. ”

“ COLLECTION OF EVIDENCE- The Secretary, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall use data made available by grant recipients under this section to develop the capacity of geriatric health care professionals and law enforcement to collect forensic evidence, including collecting forensic evidence relating to a potential determination of elder abuse, neglect, or exploitation. ”

“ Nay, gentlemen, I need not ask you to imagine it. You were a part of the community. It came to you in your daily avocations, it sent a thrill through your beings and you felt that life was not secure. Every man turned detective. Every act and fact and thought that occurred to the thousand, to the million men all over the United States, was spread abroad and furnished and given for the identification of the criminal, and still it remained an impenetrable mystery. ”

“ Where an entire human skeleton has been discovered, the objects of inquiry here, as in the case of fragments or remains, are to establish the identity of the victim and that of the author of the act, and to collect all available information relative to the nature of the death and to the diverse circumstances attending the commission of the deed. ”

“ The greatest safeguard is, that upon the trial of a question of fact both sides are represented by counsel, and the opportunity which cross-examination offers to an advocate of even reasonable and ordinary skill is such, that these conclusions and inferences may be sifted down through the chain of observation, and the process of drawing these conclusions and inferences from a series of facts, tested in such a manner that the improbability, probability, or truth of any given inference or conclusion may be determined with substantial accuracy. ”

“ The jury value evidence by the exactness of statement of, and the powers of observation evidenced by, a witness. Little benefit is gained by cross-examining one who is obviously telling the plain truth.
Don’t exaggerate or estimate—“blessed are the pure in fact” in a law court; in measurements and descriptions [Pg 35] be accurate, quoting figures where possible.
You must answer all questions put to you, excepting such as would tend to incriminate yourself; before you answer such questions, the Coroner must warn you of the possible legal consequences if you answer. ”

“ A further test has to be applied by each investigator for himself. When we have ascertained, as far as possible, on what evidence our knowledge of an alleged fact rests, we have to consider the inherent probability of the allegation. Is the statement about it in accordance with the general workings of human nature, or with the particular working of the nature of the persons to whom the action in question is ascribed? Father Gerard, for instance, lavishly employs this test. ”

“ Exclude lawyers and curious laymen, but invite another medical man, especially if your own previous actions may be in question.
Whatever you discover must be kept secret until you give evidence in court. As a matter of courtesy, the Coroner [Pg 19] may be informed privately, before the inquest is held, of any unexpected or grave results; do not, however, inform press men.
Medical Examination of the Living and of the Dying, for the Purpose of Evidence.
All persons examined physically must be informed of, and consent to, the purpose and possible legal consequences. ”

“ Where an investigator believes on reasonable grounds that the performance of an autopsy on the body of a deceased, or the carrying out of other medical examinations of human remains, is, or may be, relevant to the conduct of the investigation, the investigator may cause such an autopsy or a medical examination to be performed. ”

“ When we remember the enormous importance of oral evidence in the chain of criminal proof, and the rough traditional empiricism of the criteria of credibility, which are daily applied in all trials to all kinds of witnesses, by men who regard them, like the prisoners, as an average abstract type—excluding only the definite cases of inability to give evidence, which are defined beforehand with as much method as the cases of irresponsibility— the necessity of calling in the aid of scientific psychology and psycho-pathology is manifest. ”

“ The expert in charge might suddenly be called upon after a little expansion of the system to prove the identity of some evil-doer out of many thousands of possible persons, or to subject a suspected person, on the evidence of a few smudgy streaks of ink or blood, to life-long servitude, or to the irremediable doom of a shameful death. In my own case, at this early stage, the mere possibility of a single serious false identification by a method as yet untried became really terrible to contemplate. ”

“ There was a time when I began to write a detective story for myself. My murder, I thought, was rather cleverly carried out. The villain sent a letter to his victim, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for an answer. The gum of the envelope was poisoned. I did not know, nor did I bother to find out, whether it was possible, but this, as I said just now, is the beauty of writing a detective story. If there is no such quick-working poison, then you invent one. ”