AFTE Store - Commentary: Tool Marks-Novel Scientific Evidence? (Ramirez Revisited)

The Florida Supreme Court decision in the case of Joseph Ramirez (Dec. 20, 2001) overturned the murder conviction based on the introduction of toolmark evidence consisting of knife created striae in the victim’s cartilage. A brief portion of the ruling states The procedure is a classic example of the kind of novel scientific evidence that Frye was intended to banish i.e., a subjective, untested, unverifiable identification procedure that purports to be infallible. It stated further ain order to preserve the integrity of the criminal justice system in Florida, particularly in the face of rising nationwide criticism of forensic science in general, our state courts both trial and appellate must apply the Frye test in a prudent manner to cull science fiction and junk science from fact. (1) Anyone claiming even book knowledge of criminalistics would immediately realize that the words, novel, science fiction, and junk science, do not apply to Toolmark Identification in general or this procedure specifically.