In January 2007, the National Academy of Sciences, at the request of the United States Congress, assembled a committee of scientific, medical, legal and law enforcement officials to examine the state and future of the forensic sciences in establishing the guilt or innocence of persons accused of criminal actions.

Many of the committee members, as well as multi-disciplinary forensic experts from around the country, will convene at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law on Thursday, March 19 to discuss the committee’s findings in a free public symposium, “The Future of the Forensic Sciences.”

The symposium will begin at 12:30 p.m. and conclude at 6:15 p.m. in the Moot Court Room of the law school, 1801 Euclid Avenue. The Ohio Supreme Court has approved the symposium for 5.25 hours of free CLE credit. Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Dean Geoffrey S. Mearns, a former federal prosecutor, organized the symposium and will moderate the panels.

The committee report is due out this month; however, a preliminary draft indicates that forensic evidence is often suspect—the product of unreliable procedures, failures in laboratory practices, inadequately trained technicians, and susceptible to misinterpretation. In their review, committee members examined several well-publicized cases in which convictions were overturned when defense teams disclosed failures in the collection and analysis of forensic evidence.

A list of symposium panelists and a schedule of their presentations are at www.law.csuohio.edu. For additional details, please call 216.687.6886.

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