Ballistic forensics voodoo

[JFB]

Wife is currently stuck on those crime shows. One show, they found the accused’s pistol, but it had been nearly destroyed. They located before and after serial number pistols and using their rifling, informed the jury that the bullet from the murder weapon match those two, thus it was the accused’s pistol used for the murder!

 

[427mach1]

Wouldn't that prove that any gun of the same model and a similar serial number could have been the murder weapon?

I've often wondered how unique the rifling marks are for a particular model firearm.

 

[coach]

That seems a bit far fetched. First you'd have to locate the two guns with serial numbers before and after. As far as I know nobody has those records.
Was this a fictional show or a true crime show? TV take a lot of liberties with reality.

 

[powder smoke]

It's TV, for enjoyment only, Adds to the story line.

I like the Killing Fields, cold cases actual murders, good show. ps

 

[NikA]

I'd have to agree that this is implausible. Barrels are not a serialized part: there is no guarantee that the consecutive serial numbers have rifling that was even produced on the same tooling. A good lawyer would get that thrown right out.

 

[Bob Wright]

First of all, Firearms Identification has nothing to do with ballistics. Entirely two different fields.

During the 1930s, the FBI laboratory conducted exhaustive tests to determine the validity of bullet engraving. They went so far as to make several barrels out of one long barrel for comparison. Each barrel segment engraved the bullet fired through it in a unique pattern.

The lab cannot find the firearm, but it can determine the guilt of a firearm in evidence. The more evidence, that is the cartridge case and the bullet, compared to lab test specimens offers pretty solid proof.

In some cases, the rifling was mutilated by the perpetrator after the crime, thus destroying some of the evidence.

Bob Wright

 

[Bob Wright]

As to TV forensics, our local medical examiner was once asked about how Quincy (I think that was the show in question) could so accurately set the exact time of death. How do you establish the time of death he was asked.

"We determine the time of death as being between the time the victim was last seen alive, and the body was found," was the ME's reply.

Real life stuff.


Bob Wright

 

[JFB]

it was one of those dramalization shows on Investigation Discovery. I have heard so many of them they all run together. They did say it was a surprise for them also about the find. they stated the make and caliber and I tried to remember, but I forgot

but my first thought was the same as others. how could they verify manufacturing sequence followed SN and just how many have to be produced before they are not the same.

I guess they could tell the different between a Glock or Berreta 9mm, but not two of the same

 

[gramps]

As to TV forensics, our local medical examiner was once asked about how Quincy (I think that was the show in question) could so accurately set the exact time of death. How do you establish the time of death he was asked.

"We determine the time of death as being between the time the victim was last seen alive, and the body was found," was the ME's reply.

Real life stuff.


Bob Wright

UT in Knoxville has an extension known as the body farm, where Dr Bass catalogs the way a body decays under varying conditions. Patricia Cromwell has written of the place in her novels, plus Dr Bass has written extensively about the farm and his findings.
gramps

 

[Pat-inCO]

If you watch anything from the "Justice Network" (another John Walsh
abortion) anything there is highly suspect. Some (a small portion) is from
what happened - Alaska State Troopers is an example.

Anything on there from Canada is hype and fluff with virtually zero factual
content. For a simplistic example, they were talking about the "High Powered"
.223 round, while showing what looked like 7.62x51 brass. And it goes on
and on and on.

Voodoo seems a good description of their "science". :roll:

 

[LGC42]

A couple of years ago I was watching one of those British murder mysteries. The murder weapon was a shotgun. The inspector told one of the officers to collect all of the birdshot so they could trace it to the gun that fired it.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I always love the old Perry Mason TV shows where Burger the Prosecutor says "the weapon had the SAME blood type as the defendant" ; Wonder if it was type A+ or one of the other most common blood types. ALWAYS aurprised old Perry don't object . I guess they weren't doing DNA in them days.