Page left intentionally blank This magazine is best viewed with the pages in pairs, side by side (View menu, page display, two- up), zooming in to see details. Odd numbered pages should be on the right. the MindAlso, Hunter we The interview ForensicTeacher Magazine in Winter 2011 $5.952 US/$6.95 Can www.theforensicteacher.com the MindAlso, Hunter we interview 3 www.theforensicteacher.com The Forensic Teacher • Winter 2011 The Volume 6, Number 18, Winter 2011 The Forensic Teacher Magazine is published quarterly, and is owned by Wide Open Minds Educational Services, LLC. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 5263, Wilmington, DE 19808. Please see inside for more information. ForensicTeacher Magazine Articles 8 Teaching Moments By Ted Yeshion, Ph.D. What happens when good people meet bad science? 10 Interview By Mark Feil, Ed.D. John Douglas was the inspiration for one of the main characters in Silence of the Lambs, he started the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, and he’s made a career out of getting inside criminals’ heads. He talked to us about a lot of things, including how forensics teachers can make lessons more real. 44 Trial by Fire By David Grann. 24 Setting the stage Todd Willingham claimed he didn’t set the fire that Do you decorate your classroom to put students in a killed his family. Even before his execution experts forensic frame of mind? We’ll show you how some folks were pointing out the junk science at his trial. do it. 58 The Dark Side of the DA 26 The Work of an Innocence By Maurice Kirkwood. An activity that lets your students play good guy and bad guy as they explore Project the world of high-pressure convictions. By Michael F. Cromett and Susan M. Thurston Myster, Ph.D. How many wrongful convictions take place every year, and why? This insightful piece will open your eyes to the horrible power of justice gone bad. Features 2 Editorial 30 Using Details to Teach 3 Forensic News Forensics By Ricky Pelazzo. We give you the low-down on a class activity that will 4 Mini-Mystery have your students talking and talking and talking. 5 Hot Web Sites 37 Mini-Lab 32 Voir Dire By Gil I. Sapir, JD, MSC. We take you behind the scenes of our legal system to 68 A Day In The Life Of... examine how one does or does not qualify as an expert witness. Can anyone make it or fake it? 73 Bloomin’ Easy 74 Morgue Guy 38 Is Handwriting Really 74 What’s Going On? Brainwriting? By J.D. Corleone. This activity lets your students determine for themselves 75 Just For Fun if graphology is a valid science. Hint: It’s not coming to 76 Stoopid Crooks TruTV any time soon. 1 www.theforensicteacher.com www.theforensicteacher.com The Forensic Teacher • Winter 2011 Editorial The ForensicTeacher Magazine Editor-in-Chief Mark R. Feil, Ed.D. Good Things Come in Assistant Editor Threes Tammy Feil, Ed.D. Book Editor Enrico Pelazzo Welcome back. By now you’re well into your school year, the holidays are around the corner, and I hope your year is shaping up as well as, or better than Science Editor you’d hoped. T. Ann Kosloski There are two things we want to bring to your attention. The first is that because Copy Editor of reasons beyond our control we are now going to publish three times a year Tammy Feil instead of four, which explains why this issue is so late. This is our third and final issue for 2011. We plan to publish in March, July, and November in 2012. And we Contributing Editor need your help. Jeanette Hencken We depend on our readers for article ideas, lessons, and labs. If something Layout/Graphic Design works well in your classroom and your forensics curriculum please drop us an email Mark Feil and describe it at [email protected]. We pay for original materials, and if you’re unsure about if we’d be interested in something please don’t hesitate Circulation to ask. Don Penglioni The other thing you’ll notice as you read through this issue is a theme. We chose junk science and the related topic of wrongful conviction because of how the CSI effect now stretches from jury boxes to the classroom. Television has numbed our minds to the idea that forensic science isn’t always right, nor are experts Editorial Advisory Board infallible. We’ve teamed with some excellent publications to reprint a few articles about this topic. And we’ve also included exercises to demonstrate to your students Lt. John R. Evans how egos and sloppy or junk science can get in the way of the truth. Better yet, Section Chief of the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit they’ll demonstrate it to themselves. We’ve also included information about voir Head, DSP Crime Lab and Forensic dire, the process of screening a witness for the stand in a courtroom. Services Unit Finally, we’ve included references for some of the reprinted articles for further Jeanette Hencken reading. Forensic Science Teacher Junk science and wrongful conviction are topics long overdue for this Webster Grove High School, Webster magazine. We hope you like what we’ve put together. Groves, MO Richard Saferstein, Ph.D. Enjoy. Chief Forensic Scientist of the New Jersey State Police Laboratory (Ret.) Consultant and textbook author Cheri Stephens Dr. Mark Feil Forensic Science Teacher Washington High School, Washington, MO Volume 6, Number 18, Winter 2011 Adjuct faculty at St. Louis U. The Forensic Teacher Magazine is published quarterly and is owned now by Wide Open Hugh E. Berryman, PhD, D-ABFA Minds Educational Services, LLC. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 5263, Wilmington, Forensic Anthropologist DE 19808. Letters to the editors are welcome and should be sent to letters@ wideopenminds.com. Submissions are welcome and guidelines are available, as is a rate Director, Forensic Institute for Research sheet for advertisers at our website www.theforensicteacher.com. At this time subscriptions and Education are not available outside North America, otherwise they are free; sign up at our website. Middle Tennessee State University Back issues are available for $6.00 USD each including shipping or on CD priced as per the website. The Forensic Teacher is copyrighted 2011 Wide Open Minds Educational Services, Ted Yeshion, Ph.D. LLC, all rights reserved. All opinions expressed by contributors represent their own views, and Associate Professor of Forensic Science not necessarily the views of the staff or editorial board. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Forensic Teacher, P.O. Box 5263, Wilmington, DE 19808. 2 The Forensic Teacher • Winter 2011 www.theforensicteacher.com www.theforensicteacher.com Congrats! Forensic Criminals Use 3D Printers to NEWSGoogle Maps Help Crooks Can Cops Lie to Grand Juries? Create Illegal Objects Case Homes In January 2012 the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case Printers that use ink or toner are Samuel Watson of Chicago con- to determine whether or not a govern- commonplace to everyone with a com- fessed to police after he was arrested for ment employee is immune from prosecu- puter. However, 3D printers are able to breaking into as many as eight homes that tion after lying to a grand jury about an take a three dimensional sketch of an he’d used Google Maps to find properties innocent person. object with measurement and carve the to burglarize. He used the satellite view In 2003 a group of doctors wanted object out of a variety of materials, from where one can see 360 degrees around to open a surgery practice in Albany, foam to plastic to metal. Criminals have the home to decide if their owners were GA. The venture was strongly opposed used these machines to print everything likely to own enough valuables to make by Pheobe Putney, a local hospital with from keys to automatic weapon ammo his crimes lucrative. Police believe about vast financial and political connections. clips to ATM scammers that steal cus- $100,000 of goods were taken over a six Charles Rehberg, the doctors’ business tomers’ bank card information. Some month period. manager, did some digging and discov- technology watchdogs are calling for ered the nonprofit hospital’s CEO made legislation to regulate the devices, but over $700,000 a year, it had bank ac- the law has been slow to move on the John Wayne Gacy’s Victims counts in the Cayman islands, and it issue, as often happens with rapidly ad- Exhumed. charged poor patients more than patients vancing technology. with insurance. Further, it was very ag- gressive in pursuing those patients in When one of the strangest serial kill- court to collect on debts. iPhone Doubles as 350x ers in American history was arrested in The trouble started when Rehberg Microscope 1978, investigators found the remains of and one of the doctors started sending 33 young men buried in the crawlspace faxes to local business and community beneath Gacy’s home. All but eight of leaders with information about Putney’s Researchers at UC Davis placed a 1 the victims were identified. However, financial practices. The hospital filed a mm ball lens on an iPhone camera with a police saved teeth and jawbones from the lawsuit against the faxers and, when the rubber sheet. The shape of the additional unknown victims in case better scientific faxes didn’t stop, Rehberg and the doctor lens makes 350x microscopy possible, method of identification were developed. found themselves indicted for telephone though a small amount of photo retouch- Fast forward 30 years.