A “Force Science” Expert Explains Why Police Shoot Unarmed Suspects

When police officers shoot an unarmed suspect, they often face state or federal charges for homicide or for violating civil rights by the use of excessive force. They are also exposed to civil liability in state or federal lawsuits. In all of those situations, the officers turn to expert witnesses to explain their actions to […]

Search Expert in Durst Case Alleged to Have Conflict of Interest

Millionaire Robert Durst, having been acquitted in 2003 of murdering his Galveston neighbor and arrested this year for murdering crime writer Susan Berman, now faces federal charges of illegally possessing a pistol in a New Orleans hotel room. Durst has felony convictions from 2004 for skipping bail and tampering with evidence. It is a violation […]

Experts Battle in Tennessee Lethal Injection Case

Lawyers representing 33 death row inmates in Tennessee are turning to expert witnesses to argue that lethal injection is an unconstitutional method of execution due to the risk of severe pain and lingering death created by the state’s drug cocktail.  Attorneys for the state called counter experts to refute the plaintiff’s claim, causing the high-profile […]

Proposed Expert Testimony Rejected in Child Pornography Case

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a defendant’s conviction of possessing child pornography after rejecting his argument that the District Court should have allowed his expert witness to testify. The decision, United States v. Gerald J. Silva, essentially holds that the jurors were just as capable as the expert of […]

Expert Witnesses Testify in Lawsuit against North Carolina Voting Law

A high-profile voter rights lawsuit in Winston-Salem, North Carolina featured several plaintiff expert witnesses who have testified about the effect state voting laws have on African American, Hispanic, and other minority communities.  Recent laws passed by the North Carolina legislature have been challenged by plaintiffs who allege they were designed to discourage minority voters from […]

Forensic Accountant Questions 50 Cent’s Bankruptcy Filing

Forensic accountants can play a critical role as expert witnesses in bankruptcy cases. Creditors or bankruptcy trustees who harbor suspicions of bankruptcy fraud turn to forensic accountants to determine whether a bankruptcy filing is legitimate. By scouring financial records, a forensic accountant hopes to determine whether a person or business filing for bankruptcy protection is […]

New Skull Fracture Research May Cause Experts to Revise Child Abuse Opinions

Legal teams that seek to free wrongly convicted defendants from prison frequently turn to expert witnesses to help them prove a client’s innocence. New evidence provided by DNA experts has resulted in 330 post-conviction exonerations in the United States. Many of those innocent defendants were facing the death penalty. As ExpertPages has reported, expert testimony […]

Experts Disagree About Effectiveness of Conversion Therapy

Whether gender attraction can be changed is the subject of expert testimony in a New Jersey trial. Conversion therapy — a controversial practice that promises to help gay men and lesbians overcome unwanted same-sex attraction — is at the core of a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) against an organization called […]

Schizophrenia Expert Witness Testifies for James Holmes Defense

Defense attorneys for Colorado theater shooter James Holmes called a psychiatry expert witness to the stand this week to testify that the defendant suffered from schizophrenia at the time he committed the crime.  Before the expert could testify at open trial, attorneys for both sides debated her qualifications to offer her opinion during trial. James […]

FBI Agent Allowed to Testify as Expert Regarding Cellphone Location

Can an FBI agent who has no engineering background provide expert testimony about a cellphone location? That was the central question posed to a Tennessee judge who is presiding in a Knox County murder case. The Evidence Against Norman Clark Norman Clark is charged with the first degree murder of his former girlfriend, Brittany Eldridge. […]