Grisham gives lawmakers a lesson in forensics

BEST-SELLING crime author John Grisham told lawmakers that faulty science is all over the US justice system, and urged nationwide improvements to forensic techniques.

“It is time to clean up the bad science,” said Grisham, who serves on the board of the Innocence Project, a group that works to exonerate wrongly convicted people mainly through using DNA evidence. The project has helped 280 such victims to date.

“Faulty science is rampant in American courtrooms. It is procured by prosecutors, often well meaning, it is tolerated by judges, offered by experts and considerably believed by jurors in good faith,” Grisham told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.