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4 Va. J. Crim. L. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/virjcr4 and id is 1 raw text is: VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW VOL. 4 2016 No. 1 THE SHIFTED PARADIGM: FORENSIC SCIENCE'S OVERDUE EVOLUTION FROM MAGIC TO LAW M. Chris Fabricant' & Tucker Carrington2 ABSTRACT A decade ago, a controversial article in Science Magazine predicted a coming paradigm shift that would push forensic sciences toward fundamental change as the result of [l]egal and scientific forces... converging to drive an emerging skepticism about the claims of the traditional forensic individualization sciences. 3This article argues that the predicted paradigm shift has occurred. We support our thesis through a deconstruction of the jurisprudence of two of the forensic disciplines implicated in numerous wrongful convictions forensic odontology (bite mark analysis) and forensic hair microscopy and an examination of a confluence of unprecedented events currently altering the landscape of forensic sciences. The empirical evidence and data gathered here demonstrates that traditional forensic identification techniques, as well as 'Joseph Flom Special Counsel & Director of Strategic Ligation for the Innocence Project. 2 Professor and Director of the Mississippi Innocence Project and Clinic at the University of Mississippi School of Law. This article benefited greatly from the contributions of Sarah Krieger, Amelia Maxfield, Joanne Luckey, and Marielle Dirkx. The authors owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law for their heroic editorial work on this article, particularly Amelia Nemitz. Finally, many thanks to Professor Brandon Garrett for guidance on this project and for his transformative scholarship on the intersection of science, law, and wrongful convction. ' Jonathan Koehler & Michael Saks, The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science, 309 SCIENCE 892, 892 (2005).

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