US Attorney General rejects US President's Council report on Forensic Science in Criminal Courts.

On September 19, 2016, the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (“PCAST”) issued a 174-page report titled “Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods” (the “PCAST Report”). 

The PCAST Report does not bind any prosecutors or any courts in the United States, but may contain arguments that will be made by defense attorneys in cases that involve forensic evidence, particularly in the areas that PCAST argues should not be introduced into federal criminal trials.  The forensics disciplines that PCAST recommends that judges not admit into evidence are the following: (1) bite mark evidence, (2) firearms tool mark identification, (3) footwear analysis, and (4) hair analysis. PCAST also suggests that judges very carefully consider whether to admit DNA from complex-mixture samples and suggests that juries be advised that fingerprint examination has a high error rate.

The response to the PCAST Report has included the following: 

•  A statement by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch stating that the U.S. Department of Justice “will not be adopting the recommendations” in the Report.

•  A release by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) criticizing the conclusions made by the Report regarding the admissibility of evidence. 

Full-time prosecutors may contact NAGTRI Center for Ethics & Public Integrity Director Amie Ely at aely@naag.org for a longer explanation of the PCAST Report, additional information about PCAST, and an analysis of some of the issues raised by the PCAST Report.