Geology of the FBI lab and the challenge to the admissibility of forensic geology in US court

Abstract

Soil and geologic evidence has been examined in the FBI Laboratory since 1939, and long admitted into trials, both in the US and abroad. However, to the best our knowledge soil evidence did not undergo a formal admissibility challenge within the US court systems until 29 th January 2016. Forensic soil analysis is typically a comparison between two or more samples to see whether they originated from different sources. When soil samples are indistinguishable, the possibility that they originated from a single source cannot be eliminated. The challenge in State of Kansas v. Kyle Flack, 13CR104 (2016), involved the admissibility of soil comparisons at the trial, as well as the qualifications of the forensic geologist who conducted the examinations. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the FBI. Names of commercial manufacturers are provided for identification purposes only, and inclusion does not imply endorsement of the manufacturer or its products or services by the FBI.

Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

“…Biological methods, such as palynology and DNA analysis for instance, also contribute significantly to the success of soil forensics (e.g., ). The use of geological material, such as soil, in forensic investigations is increasing in police forces around the world, including at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), as well as in other forensic agencies (e.g., ). Forensic soil provenancing, a sub‐discipline within forensic geology, can be defined as the capability to spatially constrain the likely region of origin of an evidentiary sample of earth‐related material .…”

Advances in Flipped Classrooms for Teaching and Learning Forensic Geology

“…References to forensic geology over the last 20 years are equal to a mean value of 23,000/y (Figure 2A); it is possible to observe that the number of publications (Figure 2B) and academic meetings/events in geosciences with special sessions devoted to forensic geology is strongly increasing [12], enforcing its position among other forensic sciences disciplines. A strong tradition of scientific research associated with the topic of forensic geology has developed among the academic communities and experts, mainly in the USA [1,2,4,5,[30][31][32], UK [6][7][8][9][10]12,[17][18][19][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], and Australia [20,27]. geology has developed among the academic communities and experts, mainly in the USA [1,2,4,5,[30][31][32], UK [6][7][8][9][10]12,[17][18][19]<...…”

“…A strong tradition of scientific research associated with the topic of forensic geology has developed among the academic communities and experts, mainly in the USA [1,2,4,5,[30][31][32], UK [6][7][8][9][10]12,[17][18][19][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], and Australia [20,27]. geology has developed among the academic communities and experts, mainly in the USA [1,2,4,5,[30][31][32], UK [6][7][8][9][10]12,[17][18][19][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]...…”

Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: A sequential multivariate approach

“…The use of geological material such as soil in forensic investigations is increasing in police forces around the world, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Australian Federal Police (e.g., [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]). In Australia, successful soil forensic investigations have contributed evidence that has been used in Australian Supreme courts (e.g., [ 8 ]).…”