Will the introduction of an emotional context affect fingerprint analysis and decision-making?

Fingerprint identification relies on an expert's ability to accurately recognise differences and similarities in friction ridge detail. The process is open to the questioning of an expert's ability to accurately analyse and interpret friction ridges. It has been suggested that the interpretation and analysis of fingermarks becomes more subjective as clarity decreases and as a consequence the expert is more vulnerable to external stimuli. An experiment involving 70 fingerprint experts was conducted to establish whether the introduction of an emotional context would alter the experts' judgement of an ambiguous or poor quality mark. The emotional context did have a perceived effect on the experts' analysis, as more stated they were affected by the information they were given. However, it did not have any actual effect on their final opinions as no difference was observed between the high- and low-emotional contexts.     

Suicide by gunshot while driving an automobile

Suicide by a motor vehicle occurs more commonly than is realized, and may be difficult to prove. Suicide by other means while driving a vehicle is far less common. An automobile driven by a young woman left a road at high speed, became airborne, and came to rest on its top in a front yard. This was initially assumed to be a fatal traffic accident. Upon righting the vehicle, a .357 revolver was found on the ground beside it. A single, fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound was found in the decedent's midanterior thorax. A suicide note was found in her purse. She had been chronically depressed and had twice attempted suicide. Vehicular suicides may constitute 10-30% of fatal single-vehicle crashes, and must be considered in any vehicular mishap lacking another reasonable explanation. Suicide by other means while driving is far less common than suicidal vehicular collision and suicidal death from carbon monoxide in motor vehicles. An autopsy should be performed in each of these sometimes-low-priority single-vehicle deaths in order to certify vehicular accidents correctly; to discover and document vehicular suicides; and to detect homicides disguised as vehicular mishaps.     

A single fatal penetrating chest wound from shattered wind-blown glass

The great majority of penetrating wounds of the thorax result from firearms and bladed weapons. Penetrating wounds of the heart and of the great vessels still have a high immediate mortality. While penetrating chest wounds occasionally result from fragments of glass; most severe and fatal wounds from glass result from one's falling into or through architectural (plate) glass, sustaining wounds of abdomen or extremities, or both. A single, fatal penetrating chest wound resulting from a wind-blown fragment of glass is distinctly uncommon. The unique case of this type reported herein is that of a 12-year-old youth who was struck in his home in the left anterior chest by a single, sharp, slender fragment of glass blown from a window which shattered in a thunderstorm. This resulted in a rapidly fatal penetrating wound involving thoracic viscera. The forensic pathologist must thoroughly investigate and document such accidental deaths, modifying his/her autopsy procedure as necessary for these purposes and to avoid accidental injury at the autopsy table.     

The unreliability of using a urine ethanol concentration to predict a blood ethanol concentration

Of approximately 5,000 forensic cases with a positive ethanol result, over 1,000 were available in which both blood and urine were present for comparison of ethanol content. Data were examined for calculation of the urine to blood ethanol concentration ratio, with the intent of evaluating the validity of predicting a blood ethanol level given a urine ethanol level. The overall urine to blood ethanol concentration ratio was 1.57:1 with a range of 0.7 to 21.0:1. The extremely wide range of values implies that a large degree of error would be introduced if a mean ratio was used when predicting a blood ethanol level from a urine ethanol level.