History

1
History

• Using science in the court of law

Our textbook and Forensic science timeline
http//forensicdna.com/bibliography.html
2
Pre-court Records

• BCE evidence of fingerprints in early paintings
  and rock carvings of prehistoric humans.
• 700s Chinese used fingerprints to establish
  identity of documents and clay structures (no
  formal classification)

3
Court Use

• (1000) Roman courts used a bloody palm print
• 1298 A Chinese book distinguishes between
  stragulation and drowning (1st recorded
  application of medical knowledge to the solution
  of a crime.)
• 1609 France sets a systematic way of document
  examination (Questioned Documents)
• 1784 Trace evidence convicted an English man for
  murder based on a torn piece of paper (one piece
  on the pistol and the corresponding piece in the
  mans pocket.

4
Court Use

• 1810 Chemical test used on a document in Germany
• 1813 Traite des Poisons Tires des Regnes
  Mineral, Vegetal et Animal, ou Toxdicologie
  General I published by Mathiew Orfila (known as
  the father of modern toxicology). He also
  developed tests for the presence of blood in a
  forensic context (in addition to the used of
  microscopes for fluid identification)

5
Court Use

• 1823 John Evangelist Purkinji (Czechoslovakia)
  published on fingerprint classifications but
  failed to recognize the significance

6
Court Use

• 1830s Anthropometry concept developed by Adolphe
  Quetelet no two bodies are alike
• 1831 Amylase was noted in human saliva
• 1835 Henry Goddard (Scotland Yards) used bullet
  comparisons to catch a murderer
• 1836 James Marsh (Scottish Chemist) used
  toxicology in a jury trial (arsenic detection

7
Court Use

• 1851 A chemistry professor of Brussels, Jean
  Sevais Stas, identified vegetable poisons in body
  tissue
• 1864 Odelbrecht photographed criminals and began
  the formal documentation of evidence and crime
  scenes
• 1877 Thomas Taylor (US) suggested palm, finger
  and tips could be used in criminal cases

8
Court Use

• 1880 Henry Faulds (Scottish) suggested
  fingerprints at scene of the crime could identify
  the offender
• 1883 (from Quetelet) Alphonse Bertillon-French-
  developed measurement methods called
  anthropometry. He is identified as the father of
  criminology
• 1891 Criminal Investigation was published by
  Hans Gross (Austrian). Credited for coining
  criminalistics

9
Court Use

• 1892 Sir Francis Galton published Fingerprints
• 1900 Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups
  (Nobel Prize in 1930)
• 1901 Sir Edward Richard Henry forced the adoption
  of fingerprint identification replacing
  anthropometry
• Henry P. DeForrest pioneered it in the USA
• 1902 R.A. Reiss (Switzerland) set up the first
  academic curricula in forensic science

10
Court Use

• 1905 Theodore Roosevelt establishes the FBI
  (1932- crime lab established in FBI)
• 1910 First Crime Lab (France Edmund Locard)
• 1918 Edmund Locard suggests 12 matching points as
  a positive fingerprint identification
• 1920 Locard published Lenquete Criminmalle et
  les Methods Scientifique
• every contact leaves a trace

11
Court Use

• 1924 August Vollmer LA Chief of Police
  implemented police crime lab. In 1932 he headed
  the first US University Institute for Criminology
  and Criminalistics UC Berkeley
• 1929 Calvin Goddard firearms expert, refined
  techniques for analysis (microscope)
• 1941 Voice print methods by Murray Hill (Bell
  Laboratories)

12
Court Use

• 1953 Crime Investigation was published by Fred
  Lundquist 1st comprehensive guide
• 1954 Field sobriety tests developed by R.F.
  Borkenstein
• 1977 FBI introduced the automated fingerprint ID
  system
• 1977 Fuseo Matsumur (Japan) developed superglue
  fuming to develop prints

13
Court Use

• 1986 1st case to use DNA evidence England (also
  used to exonerate an innocent suspect)
• 1991 Integrated Ballistics Identification
  System developed by Walsh Automation Inc.
  (Montreal)
• 1996 FBI introduced the computerized searches for
  the fingerprint databases
• 1999 Digital scanning and searching now available
  for FBI searching