The photographic pose seems a cliché now, given the frequency with which it's been struck during the past 25 years: Jim McCloskey, a self-taught private investigator, stands next to a man or a woman just released from prison after serving time for a murder or a rape committed by somebody else. Sometimes a third person shows up in the photograph, quite likely a lawyer who helped McCloskey expose the incompetence or misconduct of police detectives, prosecutors, crime laboratory analysts, psychiatrists, defense attorneys, judges, jailhouse informants, well-intended witnesses and jurors. There ... Read More
Keystone Cops at the Police Lab
June 18, 2009 • By • 7 Comments
When CSI became the most popular drama on television earlier this decade, forensic scientists employed by police departments emerged from anonymity. Discerning viewers seemed to understand that real-life police laboratory personnel (filling a job description officially known as "criminalist") do not solve murders and rapes within an hour. Still, the glamorization generated by television drama had begun, increasing exponentially with the spinoff shows CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. Many criminalists indeed serve justice well, conscientiously analyzing evidence found at crime scenes, including ... Read More
Innocent Until Reported Guilty
September 23, 2008 • By • 6 Comments
As guards led Ellen Reasonover to the van that would transport her to prison, she could not comprehend that a St. Louis County, Mo., jury had just found her guilty of a cold-blooded murder. A 24-year-old single mother of a baby daughter, Reasonover had no history of violence, yet she stood convicted of killing a 19-year-old gas station attendant in the neighborhood where she lived. She had come to the attention of police only after she answered a television broadcast requesting potential witnesses to offer information. Motivated by good citizenship, Reasonover showed up at the local police ... Read More
