Harden Law Offices

104 Main Street, Lancaster, NH 03584 603.788.2080
2 Cottage Street, Littleton, NH 03561 603.444.2084
199 Heater Road, Lebanon, NH 03766 603.448.3737
www.dwilawyernh.net
info@lenharden.com

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Bad science puts innocent people in jail — and keeps them there

As a criminal defense lawyer for 25 years, I have seen many changes in how science interacts with the law.  This story by the Washington Post gives a good summary of how bad science and pseudo science have led to wrongful convictions and incarcerations.



It is important that if you are charged with a crime that you have a lawyer that is able to demand that the science be reliable, accurate and precise.  It is not enough to believe what the so called expert says, rather it is the duty of the defense lawyer to demand to see the actual data to test the claims. 

I take pride in making sure that any scientific claim be backed up by raw data that is testable, and able to be verified.  There is an old saying "In God We Trust, in all others we demand proof."  That goes double for any scientific claims.