It was announced today that Zimmerman was arrested on second degree murder charges for the death if Trayvon Martin.

As a forensic scientist, I wouldn’t expect there to be much evidence to analyze, simply because the accused has admitted to shooting the victim. The question put before the jury will be whether or not he was acting in self defense. Blood spatter analysis may be the only physical evidence that could be used to help recreate the circumstances and support or refute this claim.


My question, however, is will it matter? The media and the public seems to have made up their minds on this already. It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds and if the defendant will choose to accept a plea rather than attempt to find an impartial jury.

What do you think? Could you be on that jury?

CrimeLabWorld

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For 20 years, a series of rape cases I helped link together through DNA analysis have gone unsolved.

Today, I received a subpoena to testify against a now identified subject. I know no details, and can’t discuss them if I did, but I can tell you that it is gratifying to see investigative work pay off in cases that have gone unsolved so long.

Some cases stick with you more than others, and certainly serial cases with multiple victims are ones that have a particular since of urgency to solve.

With a DNA profile of the unidentified bad guy in a national database, I often felt that the only piece of mind was knowing that sooner or later, the odds were a match would eventually be found.

Could that be the case in this series of rapes that I worked on for a better part of my career?

I will be meeting with the attorneys in the next few days to discuss the upcoming trial and will probably present my testimony soon after. Then it’s up to the jury to evaluate the evidence and decide, has this 20 year old question finally been answered?

CrimeLabWorld