Mass spectrometry has made profound contributions to
the criminal
justice system by providing an instrumental method of analysis that
delivers exquisite analytical figures of merit for a wide variety
of samples and analytes. Applications include the characterization
of trace metal impurities in hair and glass to the identification
of drugs, explosives, polymers, and ignitable liquids. This review
describes major historical developments and, where possible, relates
the developed capabilities to casework and legal precedents. This
review also provides insight into how historical applications have
evolved into, and out of, modern consensus standards. Unlike many
pattern-based techniques and physical-matching methods, mass spectrometry
has strong scientific foundations and a long history of successful
applications that have made it one of the most reliable and respected
sources of scientific evidence in criminal and civil cases. That said,
in several appellate decisions in which mass spectrometric evidence
was challenged but admitted, decisions sometimes still went against
the mass spectrometric data anyway, which goes to show that mass spectrometric
evidence is always just one piece of the larger legal puzzle.