Evidence on Fire

42 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2018 Last revised: 2 Oct 2019

See all articles by Valena Elizabeth Beety

Valena Elizabeth Beety

Indiana University Maurer School of Law; Arizona State University (ASU) - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

Jennifer D. Oliva

Indiana University Maurer School of Law; Georgetown University Law Center; UCSF/UC Law Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy

Date Written: April 4, 2018

Abstract

Fire science, a field largely developed by lay “arson” investigators, police officers or similar first responders untrained in chemistry and physics, has been historically dominated by unreliable methodology, demonstrably false conclusions, and concomitant miscarriages in justice. Fire investigators are neither subject to proficiency testing nor required to obtain more than a high school education. Perhaps surprisingly, courts have largely spared many of the now-debunked tenets of fire investigation any serious scientific scrutiny in criminal arson cases. This Article contrasts the courts’ ongoing lax admissibility of unreliable fire science evidence in criminal cases with their strict exclusion of the same flimsy evidence in civil cases notwithstanding that both criminal and civil courts are required to operate under the same expert evidence exclusionary rules.

Judges are capable of ensuring that the forensic science evidence they admit at trial is reliable in both criminal and civil proceeding. In addition, the law mandates that they do so. The Federal Rules of Evidence and Daubert demand the application of the same standards to vet the admissibility of expert evidence in criminal and civil cases. Moreover, Kumho Tire v. Carmichael expands that mandate to exclude capricious forensic evidence regardless of whether it is characterized as “scientific” or “technical.” Unfortunately, thirty-one states have failed to embraced the holding of Kumho Tire. As a result, litigants are not entitled to raise Daubert challenges to fire evidence that courts deem technical, rather than scientific, knowledge in the overwhelming majority of American jurisdictions.

The ongoing admission of flawed fire science in criminal cases causes us to circle back to the problem Daubert sought to address: the courts’ failure to exclude junk science in American trials. Criminal courts must follow their civil counterparts and rigorously enforce gatekeeping when prosecutors proffer questionable forensic “science” evidence in order to secure a conviction. Moreover, criminal defense attorneys must invoke Daubert and challenge unreliable forensic science during the trial proceedings. As several courts have held, the failure to do so falls below the constitutional requirements that attend to effective advocacy.

Keywords: Evidence, Fire Science, Arson, Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Daubert, Kumho Tire, Expert, Forensic

Suggested Citation

Beety, Valena Elizabeth and Oliva, Jennifer, Evidence on Fire (April 4, 2018). 97 North Carolina Law Review 483 (2019), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3156796

Valena Elizabeth Beety (Contact Author)

Indiana University Maurer School of Law ( email )

211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

Arizona State University (ASU) - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

111 E. Taylor Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
United States

Jennifer Oliva

Indiana University Maurer School of Law ( email )

211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

HOME PAGE: http://law.indiana.edu/about/people/details/oliva-jennifer-d.html

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

HOME PAGE: http://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/experts/jennifer-oliva/

UCSF/UC Law Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy ( email )

200 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.uchastings.edu/people/jennifer-d-oliva/

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