Jeff Kukucka

NJ Bans ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ Diagnosis in Nationwide First Criminal prosecutors can’t build murder cases on medical diagnoses that the mere shaking of a baby, without further evidence of trauma, resulted in a child’s death, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled ...

news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/nj-ba...

BREAKING: NJ Supreme Court affirms the unreliability of expert testimony on "shaken baby syndrome."

www.njcourts.gov/system/files...

@nationalacademies.org releasing their new report on forensic pathology and deaths in custody momentarily. Watch the live stream here:

www.nationalacademies.org/event/45917_...

Accusing Jordan Silverman A D.C. teaching assistant was accused of molesting up to 15 kids. Multiple law enforcement agencies cleared him. But his nightmare was just beginning.

substack.com/@radleybalko...

Infant shaking death case sent back to lower court Danyel Smith has maintained his innocence since his 2003 conviction.

www.walb.com/2025/10/15/g...

When Death Investigations Go Wrong A growing body of data shows how outdated forensic methods and unreliable expert testimony distort justice.

innocenceproject.org/news/when-de...

New in @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social...

'Cognitive Bias Affects Perception and Decision-Making in Simulated Facial Recognition Searches'

People rated whichever candidate was paired with biasing info as looking most like the perp -- even though that info was random!

www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15...

How a daring audit sparked Maryland’s reckoning over police custody deaths Research by a psychology professor from Towson University shed new light on how the work of medical examiners suffers from bias.

How a daring audit sparked Maryland’s reckoning over police custody deaths

House Judiciary Committee grapples with response to medical examiner audit - Maryland Matters House lawmakers grappled Wednesday to find a path forward on a report that dozens of police-custody deaths previously ruled accidental or of unknown causes by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ...

marylandmatters.org/2025/06/26/h...

Georgia Supreme Court reexamining dad’s murder conviction in shaken baby death A jury convicted Danyel Smith of murdering his child more than 20 years ago. He’s asking for a new trial focused on medical advances.

Danyel Smith could be a free man today, but instead he's fighting to clear his name.

www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/04/16/g...

The Hawthorne effect in studies of firearm and toolmark examiners The Hawthorne effect refers to the tendency of individuals to behave differently when they know they are being studied. In the forensic science domain, concerns have been raised about the “strategic ....

New data suggest that firearms examiners make more conservative decisions when they know they're being studied, raising further questions about error rates derived from black box studies...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Big news: Georgia is set to become the 39th state to compensate wrongly convicted individuals. Read the full statute here:

www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/...

Trump must face defamation lawsuit from 'Central Park Five' defendants U.S. President Donald Trump has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of making defamatory statements about five Black and Hispanic men who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park.

Good. Fuck him up.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Georgia’s highest court to hear case of dad convicted of killing infant son Danyel Smith was convicted of killing his infant son more than 20 years ago. He’s maintained his innocence since.

More press coverage of Danyel Smith's upcoming appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court...

www.fox8live.com/2025/04/08/g...

Yup!

This recommendation form is completely unhinged 🧐

Amanda Knox calls for ban on police lying to suspects during interrogation Confessing to a crime you didn’t commit seems unthinkable, but growing research and real-life examples show it does happen.

Great job @amandaknox.com and @davejr8.bsky.social explaining why police shouldn't lie to criminal suspects!

Bonus: At the 7:30 mark, the president of the world's largest interrogation training program admits: "Most of what [scientists] suggest we reject." 🙃

www.investigatetv.com/2025/03/24/a...

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APA Division 3 (Society for Experimental Psych and Cognitive Science) has several open leadership positions!

These are great opportunities to get involved in APA, especially for ECPs! See below link/flyer for more info...

drive.google.com/file/d/1yC4h...

#PsychSky #PsycSci #PsychSciSky #CogPsyc

The Junk Science That Gets Parents Convicted of Murder A Texas man is awaiting execution for shaking his child to death. But even the detective on the case now thinks he’s innocent.

www.thefp.com/p/the-junk-s...

Hard agree -- and I'm part of the problem. I swear I get face blindness for these three days every year 🙈

😎 #APLS2025 @ap-ls.org @aplssc.bsky.social

@kimberleyclow.bsky.social

The lengthy motion cites, among many other things, the SAME COURT'S decision to overturn a nearly-identical conviction last year.

Georgia reforms the way it handles child abuse allegations following 11Alive News investigation It comes after 11Alive Chief Investigator Rebecca Lindstrom's "Help That Harms" series.

Georgia will now require doctors to review a child's complete medical history before making an abuse accusation, and parents will no longer need permission to seek a second opinion.

www.11alive.com/article/news...

What a handsome boy. So sorry for your loss 💙

State apologizes, awards $3M to man wrongly imprisoned for murder Marando Warthen won an official apology and $3 million in compensation from the state of Maryland on Wednesday, after serving decades in prison for wrongful murder convictions in 1984.

State apologizes, awards $3 million to man wrongly imprisoned for murder

Firearm Forensics Is Still Troubled by Systemic Failure Three forensic examiners at the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory last year mistakenly concluded that cartridge cases from a crime scene matched a specific firearm. The error exposes systemic flaws ...

Failures in forensic firearms analysis are "not just the result of mistakes; they [are] the predictable outcome of a system that lacks safeguards against bias and subjectivity.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/fire...

This includes some of my favorite humans 🫶🏻