Forensic odontologist Dr. Richard Souviron testified at the first trial along with a display board. On the board was a photo of the bite marks on Levy. He put a transparent sheet, which showed Bundy’s teeth impression, on top of that photo and stated, ”They line up exactly!”
He even testified within a reasonable degree of certainty that the suspect’s teeth matched the bite mark.
However, Dr. Niki Osborne, a forensic research scientist based in New Zealand who studies decision-making and reliability in forensic sciences, says such a statement is impossible.
Read MoreNiki Osborne talks forensic science, her PHD in psychology, Rad Car Ad, 5 why’s, The Block + much more
Read MoreKiwi forensic researcher Niki Osborne keeps fielding calls from American media. "What about the bloodstain pattern analysis in that series The Staircase?" they ask.
We're the first New Zealand media to call. You could read that two ways – maybe New Zealand is immune to the growing global disquiet about the reliability of forensic science. Of 350 wrongfully convicted Americans exonerated by DNA, 45 per cent had unvalidated or improper forensics as a contributing cause, according to The Innocence Project. Of those, 20 were sentenced to death.
Or maybe we're only now catching up.
Read MoreBloodstain spatter expert Duane Deaver's testimony helped put author Michael Peterson behind bars. But, when it was revealed that he was negligent and lied on the stand, Peterson got a new trial.
Read MoreOn 28 September 2000, David Camm, a former police state trooper from Indiana, United States, returned home after playing basketball to discover his wife and two children, aged 5 and 7, in the garage, dead from apparent gunshot wounds.
Read MorePsychological scientist Dr Niki Osborne, from both the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR), is getting accustomed to her friends calling her “Dexter” – after all, she spends her days looking at blood spatter.
Read MoreGlenn Langenburg sits down and interviews Niki Osborne about her work in New Zealand and at the University of California - Irvine in examining how contextual information can influence forensic opinions, especially in the fields of bloodstain pattern analysis and questioned document / handwriting.
Read More