The forensics of bullets
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https://reason.com/2023/06/22/maryland-supreme-court-limits-testimony-on-bullet-matching-evidence/
The Maryland Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that firearms experts will no longer be able to testify that a bullet was fired from a particular gun. The decision is likely the first by a state supreme court to undercut the widespread forensic discipline of firearms identification, which is used in criminal cases across the country.
In a 4–3 decision first reported by The Baltimore Sun, the Maryland Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction of Kobina Ebo Abruquah after finding that a firearm expert's trial testimony linking Abruquah's gun to bullets found at a crime scene wasn't backed up by reliable science. In the majority opinion, Maryland Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader wrote that "firearms identification has not been shown to reach reliable results linking a particular unknown bullet to a particular known firearm."
The Maryland Supreme Court did not entirely throw out firearms identification testimony. It found that the methodology is strong enough to support testimony that a bullet was consistent or inconsistent with those fired from a specific gun. However, it found an "analytical gap" between what evidence the technique can support and the trial expert's unqualified opinion that the crime scene bullets were fired from Abruquah's revolver.
While the ruling is a win for the Innocence Project, Brief says tweaking the language does not solve the fundamental problem with firearm identification and testimony. Instead of more carefully couching the language expert witnesses use, she wants it replaced with unambiguous statistics and meaningful error rates.
"This just shows us that there's more work that needs to be done," Brief says. "I think a juror may be scratching their head. How is a juror supposed to know what the words consistent or inconsistent really mean in a scientific way?"
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When I closed out the morgue, I had a box full of bullets recovered from bodies. I couldn't find anybody to take them...Not the sheriff, the city police or the state police. Everybody said those cases had long been adjudicated and many were so old, the perps were probably deceased, anyway.
They got melted down for .357 size semi-wadcutters and reshot.
