Aversion To Scientific Evidence
Judges tend to use more caution when admitting scientific data than when considering other types of physical evidence. This has been linked to a concern that scientific data is given priority over other forms of information. Jurors have been known to take scientific evidence as fact, so judges must decide how reliable the information is before allowing a jury to take that information into account. Allowing too much scientific data makes a case less subjective and gives jurors less of a choice in their deliberation; therefore, some judges try to limit charts, graphs, and other forms of overwhelming scientific evidence in relation to a crime. This is one of the main reasons that voiceprints and polygraphs have been denied admissibility in the courtroom. They are both subjective components of scientific evidence, but presented as fact by prosecutors, the jurors may become misinformed on how reliable the data is, and therefore most judges exclude it. These techniques are still used heavily in detective work, even though they are not admissible in court. These techniques help officers to find other types of evidence that can be brought to court and can help to ensure themselves that they are following the correct suspect.
Read more about this topic: Forensic Entomology And The Law
Famous quotes containing the words aversion to, aversion, scientific and/or evidence:
“Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific breakthrough ... had occurred and that a great part of the population of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes of man had been explicitly defined.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)
“In spite of the air of fable ... the public were still not at all disposed to receive it as fable. I thence concluded that the facts of my narrative would prove of such a nature as to carry with them sufficient evidence of their own authenticity.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)