A Question of Evidence: The Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O.J.

Book Description

Scientific sleuthing and slip-ups in the investigations of fifteen famous cases
Ranging from the Turin Shroud and the suspicious death of Napoleon Bonaparte to the murder cases of Dr. Sam "The Fugitive" Sheppard and O. J. Simpson, A Question of Evidence takes readers inside some of the most vexing forensic controversies of all time. In each case, Colin Evans lays out the conflicting medical and scientific evidence and shows how it was used or mishandled in reaching a verdict. Among the other cases: the assassination of JFK, the strange history of Alfred Packer (the only convicted American cannibal), the death of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi, and the trials of Lindy Chamberlain (the "dingo baby" case) and Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald (the case recounted in Fatal Vision). Though the science of forensics has helped solve a huge number of crimes, it's clear from A Question of Evidence that many cases are more open than shut.
Colin Evans (Pembroke, UK) is the author of the popular Casebook of Forensic Detection (Wiley: 0-471-28369-X) as well as Great Feuds in History (Wiley: 0-471-38038-5).

Customer Reviews:

Very well done.......2006-11-10

Interesting take on many of the controversies of the past. Good use of science, as opposed to heated opinion, to come up with some answers to "did they or didn't they"? I liked the author's historical approach, using cases to trace the development of forensics over time. Overall, a very good read.

Clever, tawdry, and opinionated.......2004-10-26

This is the sort of book that may provide amusement for an idle hour and then make you wish you had spent your time reading something with greater depth. Evans is a clever writer, and his opinionated handling of fifteen stories doesn't bother me because I usually agree with him. But his narrative treatment is (like many of his subjects) tawdry. Furthermore, the reader should be wary of factual errors. Some years ago I enjoyed reading Evan's short version of the Sacco-Vanzetti case in his Casebook of Forensic Detection (1996). In my view he was absolutely correct about Sacco's guilt-but he also called Sacco's Colt automatic pistol a revolver. The warning lights came up. When you're hunting big game, your aim has to be dead on.

Not even enchanted.......2003-12-19

If you're expecting an unbiased view of the cases you need to look elsewhere. I got to the third case feeling like I was reading a trashy novel and wondering if this guy Evans even worked in this field. Apparently he doesn't. Glad I didn't buy it.

Colossal Disappointment.......2003-07-27

As a professional in this field I expected a fine book. Unfortunately, this is written by a writer, not by someone truly experienced in the field, and the writer appeared to do minimal research. It appears to be intended to appeal to weak-minded television soap opera viewers seeking a "true crime" thrill. It's claimed facts on some cases are misleading or incorrect. Some sections repeat other writer's errors that would be easily corrected or refuted by minimal research or thought, which obviously was not done. Colossal disappointment. Not recommended. Embarrassing.

Or better yet, questions of interpretation.......2003-06-11

I had intended to read only two or three of these cases, those that I was most familiar with, the O. J. Simpson case and the Jeffrey MacDonald case, for example, but found myself reading more and more into the book until I had read all fifteen of them.

What Evans does so very well is concisely and clearly present the facts of the cases so that the reader feels clearly involved; and then he brings into sharp focus the controversies about the evidence and the interpretation of the evidence. In starring roles are the forensic experts themselves, botanists and microbiologists, pathologists and coroners, many of them with international reputations and big egos to match. Then Evans argues his position along with the experts. He is not shy about letting us know which side he prefers, concluding, for example, in the Dr. Sam Sheppard murder case from the fifties, that "there wasn't a scintilla of hard evidence in 1954 to prove that Sam Sheppard killed his wife. There still isn't."

I think Evans's decision to be candid about where he stands in each of the cases strengthens his credibility and helps to make this an enjoyable read. It gives the reader an opportunity to agree or disagree. I won't mention where he stands on some of the other famous cases, some of which are still controversial today, e.g., whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy, or the credibility of the Turin Shroud relic, or whether Napoleon was poisoned or not. That would spoil a little of the fun. I will say I found myself in agreement with him in almost every instance, but that may be partly because he guided me so well!

But did he change my mind in any of the cases? Partially. I still think Dr. Sam did it, but now believe that there was too much doubt for a conviction to be justified. And in the infamous Lindy Chamberlain case, which Evans dubs "Australia's Forensic Nightmare," where I had doubts, I now have assurance. You will recall that Chamberlain was the woman who claimed that a dingo grabbed her baby out of the family's camping tent and carried it off and ate it to the horror of much of the world. However the police didn't believe her story and arrested her for murder. A film A Cry in the Dark (1988) starring Meryl Streep was made from a book about the case, Evil Angels by John Bryson.

Another thing that Evans does well is evaluate and critique the forensic experts themselves. He shows in the case of one Donald Merrett how the mistaken conclusion and testimony of Sir Bernard Spilsbury "the first and greatest forensic superhero" (p. 42) on whether a shooting was a suicide or not allowed a killer go free to kill again, and he did. In the Rachel Nickell murder in Britain in 1992 he delineates how psychological profiling can mistakenly narrow the field of suspects to exclude the actual murderer. In the O.J. Simpson case it is not the forensic experts who come under fire, but a system that allows such a mismatch of legal talent that the forensic evidence can become blurred in the eyes of the jury.

My favorite chapter was the one on the Kennedy assassination. Having argued the controversy endlessly with fellow students while an undergraduate at UCLA, and having read several books on the subject, I can tell you that what Evans presents in a mere sixteen pages is as clear and forthright summation of what happened as I've read anywhere.

Bottom line: an engaging collection of retrospectives on famous crimes that turned on forensic evidence.

Product Description

The book describes the steps which lead from the raw signals measured in space to firstly calibrated an comparable long term data sets and in a second step to information for user communities. From the primarily spectral radiances information is inferred which is needed in the context of modeling climate variability such as the variable surface albedo and temperatures, soil moisture, and energy and water vapour fluxes between the surface and the atmosphere. This includes the assessment of medium scale land-surface changes like desertification and biomass productivity. Examples of applications and data validations result from different investigations in the Mediteranean area. An appendix summarizes useful formulas of the evaluation of satellite data. Beside the presentation of research results the book will therefore also be of interest for newcomers in the field and satellite data users who like to understand in greater detail the generation and information content of remote sensing data.

The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections

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The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections
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The best comprehensive view of this subject I have seen........1998-11-25

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