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Tales From the ‘Tails’ of Bloodstains

Loaded on Feb. 15, 2024 by Douglas Ankney published in Criminal Legal News February, 2024, page 15
Filed under: Commentary/Reviews, junk science, Eyewitness Testimony. Location: United States of America.

by Douglas Ankney

Protrusions that deviate from the boundaries of otherwise elliptical bloodstains—known as “tails”—may provide additional relevant crime-scene evidence, according to James Bird, scientist and co-author of a study appearing in the journal Physics of Fluids.

A group of scientists from Boston University and University of Utah demonstrated that tail length can generate information regarding “the size, impact speed, and impact angle” of the droplet that formed the stain. By measuring several stains in a bloodstain pattern, “the trajectories of the drops can be backtracked to their presumed origin.”

Previous studies focused primarily on large blood drops falling vertically on either flat or inclined surfaces where gravity may either obscure or reshape tails. But this new study “involved a series of high-speed experiments with human blood droplets with diameters of less than a millimeter impacting horizontal surfaces at various angles.”

Bird said, “[k]nowing the origin of blood stains at a crime scene can help detectives determine whether a victim was standing or sitting, or help corroborate or question a witness’s testimony.”  

 

Source: forensicmag.com

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  1. Geofence Warrants: The Mass Location Surveillance and Privacy Threat Created by Google May Be Eliminated by Its Creator, by Anthony Accurso
  2. Minnesota Supreme Court Announces Odor of Marijuana Alone Emanating From Vehicle Insufficient for Probable Cause to Search Under Automobile Exception, by Anthony Accurso
  3. Michigan Supreme Court: Defendant’s Statements Involuntary and Inadmissible, by Douglas Ankney
  4. Tales From the ‘Tails’ of Bloodstains, by Douglas Ankney
  5. New Jersey Supreme Court Excludes CSLI Testimony Based on Agent’s ‘Rule Of Thumb’ Method for Determining Defendant’s Location, by Anthony Accurso
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  8. Third Circuit: Defendant Not on Rental Agreement Had Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Car Because He Had Dominion and Control of Car Where Renter Gave Keys to Him, He Was in Possession of Them Upon Arrest, and Car Parked Nearby, by Anthony Accurso
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  13. Fifth Circuit Announces Revocation Judgments for Violation of Supervised Release Vacated Because Underlying Sentence Vacated, by Anthony Accurso
  14. Third Circuit: Defense Counsel Ineffective Under Strickland Where Counsel Sat Silent After Judge Threatened to Charge Witness With Perjury Unless Testimony Changed, by Douglas Ankney
  15. Study Raises Alarms About Inaccuracies and Bias in Gun Forensics Reporting, by Jo Ellen Nott
  16. Ninth Circuit Announces District Courts Must Either Orally Pronounce All Discretionary ‘Standard’ Conditions of Supervised Release in the Presence of Defendant or Provide Conditions in Writing Prior to Sentencing, by Douglas Ankney
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  19. Who Let the Dogs Out? Robotic Dogs Are the Newest (and Scariest) Surveillance Tech in U.S. Police Departments, by Jo Ellen Nott
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