Teeth have always been used to try to make an age determination of a body, but once a person reaches adulthood, signified by the appearance of wisdom teeth, it is impossible to determine exact age by dental eruption examination.  Now there is a new technique that may allow teeth to tell investigators a whole lot more about the age of a body.

Research from Sweden shows that radioactive carbon-14 in tooth enamel can be used to determine the year of birth of an indentified body.   Radioactive carbon-14 still remains in the environment from nuclear testing in the 1950’s and 1960’s, which caused a surge in global cabon-14 levels; the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has been decreasing since the 1963 ban on nuclear testing.  The decrease of carbon-14 can be attributed to its mixing with large marine and terrestrial carbon reservoirs, the decrease has occurred at a steady measurable rate.  Scientists have carefully recorded the steady decrease in carbon-14 over time, to the point that a given level of carbon-14 can now be matched back to a specific year in the past 50-60 years.  Since carbon-14 is incorporated into all living things, everybody has carbon-14 in their bodies; teeth incorporate carbon-14 from the year they are formed.  Since adult teeth develop around the 20^th week of fetal gestation, the carbon-14 levels in the enamel can pinpoint the year of birth.

This new method has the potential to be quite useful in a forensic setting given its ability to accurately narrow down the age of a person to the year.  The question will be how fast is the testing process and how expensive is it.

On May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared while walking to a bus stop two blocks from his home in lower Manhattan, New York. Etan’s body was never recovered and no one was ever officially convicted of the crime.

 Many people might remember Etan as the first child to be pictured on the side of a milk carton. This was one of the first methods used to stimulate public awareness and would later set the Missing Children Movement in motion. In addition to Etan’s disappearance, other incidents during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s mobilized the missing child movement, including the Atlanta Child Murders and the murder of six-year old Adam Walsh.

 The movement focused on improving the spread of information throughout the nation and community to spread awareness and help locate the child. Broadcasting alerts through an Emergency Alert System notified the public of a missing or abducted child and was at risk of serious injury or death. This method was strongly advocated and further developed into the AMBER alert, after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered in 1996.

 In addition, the introduction of new legislation, such as the Missing Children Act (1982) and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (2006), also improve child protections and inform the public about these types of crimes and how they could be prevented. Specialized agencies and units within police departments were also developed to focus on the specific nature of these crimes so response was quick. A notable agency created is the National center for Missing and Exploited Children (1984) which helped spread information and protection through methods such as creating a registry of known sex offenders.

 Updates

Etan Patz was legally declared dead in 2001. The case was reopened in 2010 by the New York District Attorney’s office. In April of 2012, FBI excavated the basement floor of a nearby home in the Patz neighborhood after cadaver dogs detected human remains. At the time of Patz’s disappearance, the owner put in new concrete floors. There was some evidence retrieved after the excavation, including a stain, some possible hairs, and a piece of paper that are currently being analyzed at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, VA.

Centuries ago when forensic science was not an established application to police investigations, eyewitness testimonies were the go-to method for collecting the facts of the crime. Nowadays, eyewitness accounts are not reliable for many reasons, one being that police may lead, intentionally or unintentionally, eyewitnesses towards a certain suspect. An honest and thorough procedure of the visual account needs to be encouraged amongst investigators.

For this reason, the House of Representatives passed a bill on May 1 changing police conduct during criminal lineups to improve eyewitness reliability. The bill is based on scientific studies done on how to improve the criminal lineup process.

During a typical criminal lineup process, either done with a one-way mirror or in a book of photographs, a suspect along with “fillers” are presented to the eyewitness.

Scientific studies were done to improve the eyewitness reliability. The modifications include using a sequential lineup which is when the eyewitness will look at one picture at a time. This reduces the number of times an eyewitness would incorrectly identify by 22%.

At this point, the bill will be reviewed by the Senate.

Since 1996, a serial rapist in the Los Angeles area has been terrorizing women. Although attacks were suddenly halted in 2005, the rapist claimed his 28^th victim late in 2011. This alarming news for Los Angelians has startled the community and drove the police community to warn young women walking in the late or early morning hours. A unique feature of the serial rapist is his tear-drop tattoo on his face; however, it appears that the perpetrator may have removed his tattoo during his hiatus of 6 years. Police believe that the hiatus is due to the suspect being locked up for a different crime.

Descriptions of the perpetrator are general and vague, ranging from a height estimate between 5-feet-2 inches to 6-feet weighing between 130 to 200 pounds. To make matters a little more difficult, the sketch composites reveal different features and different positions of the tear-drop tattoo. Could this be an indicator of multiple perpetrators?

His mode of operation (MO) is another unique feature of this case. The suspect engages in a conversation with a woman walking alone between the times of 5am to 8am then brandishes a weapon, either knife or gun, to lure them into a secluded area to commit the horrendous crime.

The 86-62 vote in the Democratic-controlled House followed last week’s Senate vote and sends the bill moving to abolish the death penalty to Governor Dannel Malloy, who has vowed to sign it into law.

The House vote follows a 20-16 vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate on April 5 to repeal the death penalty. Once signed into law, Connecticut will become the fifth U.S. state in five years to remove the death penalty, following Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York.

Connecticut’s removal of the death penalty would replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole.  These prisoners sentenced to life in prison without parole would receive the same treatment as those on Death Row do now.

Since 1976 when the United States Supreme Court case Gregg v. Georgia repealed the ban on the death penalty, Connecticut has executed one man, a serial killer, by lethal injection.  There are currently 11 men on Death Row in Connecticut and they would still face execution, since the law would only apply to future sentences.

In the case of Gregg v. Georgia, the US Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Troy Leon Gregg, effectively overturning the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, where the death penalty was barred because it was considered a violation of the eighth amendment protecting against cruel and unusual punishments.

Since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstituted, the state of Texas has executed the most inmates at 481, with another 317 on Death Row currently. Lethal injection has become the standard method for capital punishment today; however there has been a death by electrocution as recently as 2010 in Virginia, and a death by firing squad in 2010 as well in Utah.

Nearly two years ago to the day, the world received news of a devastating explosion on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon disaster left 11 workers dead, a delicate ecosystem nearly destroyed, and everyone pointing fingers. BP has already paid billions of dollars to gulf shore businesses damaged by the oil spill, however no criminal charges had been filed against BP or any of its employees involved in the spill until now.

Kurt Mix, a recently-retired engineer for BP, has been charged with two counts of obstruction of justice for the destruction of more than 200 text messages exchanged with his supervisor regarding the true gravity of the oil spill and the futility of BP’s efforts to stop it.

Initial reports from BP to the public had indicated that the leakage from the well was up to 5,000 barrels of oil per day. However government tests of the site had revealed amounts more than ten times those released by BP. In the end, 206 million gallons of crude oil seeped into the Gulf—roughly 59,000 barrels per day—making it the worst oil spill in American history. While BP was publicly downplaying the severity of the spill, it seems that those on the inside, those present at the very epicenter of the disaster, those like Kurt Mix, knew more than they were letting on.

It was Mix’s job to determine the size of the spill and whether a “top kill,” the initial attempt at quelling the spew would be possible. According to the Justice Department’s reports announcing the charges, BP engineers were aware that Top Kill was unlikely to work if the leakage was over 15,000 barrels per day. While BP’s public reports estimated 5,000 barrels daily, text messages from Mix to his higher-ups revealed that he knew Top Kill had little chance of stopping the spill. “Too much flowrate—” he said, “over 15,000 and too large an orifice.” After several days, Top Kill was determined a failure.

Despite being told to preserve anything that could be regarded as evidence pertaining to the spill, Mix deleted the text messages that could have incriminated himself or his employer, and proving that the company may have been intentionally misleading about the true damage done by the spill. The obstruction charges mean Mix could face up to 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines for each count.

While criminal charges allow for a measure of culpability in the worst environmental disaster that the U.S. has ever known, proving that Mix deleted his text messages to protect the face of his company or forcing BP to pay billions more in damages will not buy back the pristine Gulf waters or the homes and breeding grounds of thousands of species. Even if Kurt Mix does serve the full 20-year sentence he faces, the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem will still not have returned entirely to normal by the time he is released.

In 1956, Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Minority Report” was published which would later be adapted into the 2002 box office film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. The story follows a world in which murder has been eliminated by using mutated humans who can predict murders before they occur, allowing police to arrest the future offender before they kill. It sounds like nothing more than just another sci-fi movie but was something being developed in the early 1990’s.

The birth of these pre-crime technologies began with the implementation of Computer/Comparative Statistics (COMPSTAT) by the New York Police Department. COMPSTAT is an accountability process that was employed to analyze crimes in the past using algorithmic and statistical software in addition to face-to-face strategic crime meetings. Since its implementation there has been a reduction in the numbers of felonies that have occurred in the area. Similar results were seen in other major cities, such as Richmond, Virginia, which saw a decrease in random gunfire related crimes and an increase in the number of weapons seized based on information obtained from this technology and process.

Pre-Crime technology uses compiled data of different crimes occurring in specific areas. For example, once such program uses 10 years of gang-related data in more than 1,000 crimes that occurred in Los Angeles. The software incorporates times, dates, places, types of crime, and the frequencies of these crimes. Using similar statistical and mathematical calculations used to predict when an earthquake may occur, crime-related data is used to predict the patterns of criminal activity and pinpoint location where the crimes are likely to occur. This type of programming allows for accuracy rates of up to 80% in determining where a crime will occur, compared to a 17% based on simple chance. Although the technology cannot predict who will commit the crime like in the movie, it does give law enforcement an indication of trends in criminal activity so they can respond before a 911 call even has to be placed.

Check out our entries on other forensic techniques and technologies

What would you do if your pen ran out of ink? Get a new pen, right? Unfortunately for Trish Vickers, when her pen ran out of ink, she kept writing. After Vickers lost her eyesight to diabetes in 2005, she began writing poetry which escalated to writing her first novel titled Grannifer’s Legacy. After reading some of her manuscript her son had to give her the unlucky news that 26 pages that Vicker’s thought she wrote were completely blank, with only the impressions left from her pen. Not knowing what to do, they finally called a nearby police department who offered their forensic document examiners to help them with their dilemma. Using specialized light to enhance the indented writing, the questioned document team recovered the lost writing after five months.

The use of light being held at oblique angles towards a document is one of the simpler methods of examining indented writing. In Vickers case it was an effective method of identifying what she wrote. In forensic cases, examiners may want to look for indentation caused from pages several sheets above the original document, which calls for a much more sensitive device. An electrostatic detection device (EDD) is a piece of equipment that is used to find impressions left on a questioned document. The device is about the size of a standard home printer and its basic components include a grounded plate and thin piece of film. After a questioned document is placed in between the plate and the film, an electrostatic charge is passed through the paper. Special toner is added to the device and is attracted areas of indentation, which have a higher charge.

 While Vicker’s case called for a simple method of identifying indented writing and did not require specialized equipment, EDD has been helpful in visualizing writing in pages that are several sheets above the original document. This type of sensitivity may be very helpful in determining who wrote a document or where it may have came from, such as kidnapping cases that involve ransom notes.

Check out all our entries about forensic techniques

There are many cases of wrongful convictions that are vacated with the entering of DNA evidence. One case of vacating wrongful convictions is the Central Park Jogger case. April 19 marks the thirteenth year of the attack and the subsequent nationwide media coverage of the case.

While jogging, Trisha Meili was raped and brutally beaten, to near death, on that night in Central Park of New York. She was found in the park suffering from extreme hypothermia, multiple lacerations, internal bleeding, and skull fractures. Doctors expected she would remain in a coma or die from her injuries. But against all odds, Meili survived her injuries with inevitable permanent disabilities like the loss of vision. Her injuries left her with no memories of the attack.

The media got a hold of this attack and news spread like wildfire. There was mass talk about Meili being attacked by African American individuals. In the end, police investigations narrowed the suspects down to a gang who went around assaulting strangers, or “wilding”. In the gang, five individuals were charged for the crime.

Faulty police investigations and coercion of suspects led to false confessions by the five suspects. The prosecutions primary evidence against the five suspects was the coerced confessions even though the five accounts were contrary to each other. In the end, they were all found guilty by a jury of their peers.

It was discovered that the DNA found at the crime scenes did not match any of the suspects. In 2002, DNA evidence matching a man who confessed to the attack secured the turnover of the wrongful convictions. The five men convicted and jailed for the crime were released and cleared their names.

Check out of entry about exonerations in Illinois 

Read about the pressure to convict, and the consequences of it

News covering Breivik’s terror trial began April 16, close to a year after the terrorist attacks, allows for a look into the Norwegian legal system.

There were two terrorist attacks in retaliation against the Norwegian government and a Workers’ Youth League summer camp. The first attack was a car bomb explosion in front of Oslo government headquarters killing 8 and injuring 209 people. The second attack occurred in a summer camp by a man posing as a policeman and opening fire killing 69 and injuring 110. 

On the first day of the trial, families of the victims and prosecutors shake hands with Breivik. Soon after, Breivik addresses the court in an hour-long speech entailing motives behind the attacks – “self defense on behalf of my people, my city, my country” – and a plea of innocence of all charges.

Lawyers who represent the victims and families of victims interrupted his speech stating that he is using his time to express his extremist views on the current country. And also, the judge at the trial insisted on Breivik to get to the point. Regardless, he spoke of his reasons and motives behind the attacks as necessary.

Breivik termed the Norway prison as “pathetic” and would rather befall two outcomes – a full acquittal or the death penalty.

One key issue of this trial is Breivik’s mental competency and stability. If Breivik is found mentally insane, he will be committed to psychiatric care rather than being jailed if found guilty.

Breivik admits to setting the car bomb and killing those in the youth summer camp. He says that he targeted teenagers because they were representatives of “multiculturalist regime”.

Read our entry about a  school shooting in Ohio

In Fort Bragg, investigators came to a home filled with of murdered individuals – Colette, Kimberly, and Kristen MacDonald. The suspect in this case was the lone survivor of the killings – Jeffrey MacDonald. With the evidence presented to the courts, and now available to the public, many insist on his innocence. Many individuals have come forward with statements regarding the murder suggesting his innocence while others assert that MacDonald is a cold, mass murderer who should not be granted an appeal or a new trial.

In the late night of February 1970, investigators were met with a bloody crime scene. There was an overturned coffee table in the living room while other furniture appeared undisturbed. Walking through the hallway and into the master bedroom, they saw a woman covered in blood lying atop a “white rug”. Kimberly and Kristen Macdonald were found in the rooms apparently belonging to the children.

Controversy arises from these brutal murders because of contradicting testimonies from witnesses, characters ranging from long-time drug abusers to retired US Marshalls. And on top of these opposing statements, followers insisting on MacDonald’s innocence say that the prosecution suppressed evidence casting doubt on him being suspect.

One witness that came forward in the beginning was Helena Swoekley, who was being counseled by MacDonald for her long-time drug abuse. She spoke with investigators confessing to being part of the murders. She changed her statement when she was put on stand claiming she does not remember what she did the night of the murder.

Another topic of controversy was the fact that Jeffrey MacDonald survived the crime with one stab wound, described by the investigators as minimal damage that did not threaten his life. But in medical reports, doctors describe multiple stab wounds and abrasions to his body along with multiple contusions to his head.

Defense attorney Bernard Segel claimed that he was never given detailed information regarding wool fibers found in all of the victim’s hands. These materials were considered ‘foreign’ because it did not match any of the fibers found within the homes. Furthermore, the hair fibers found in Colette’s hands were of blonder color and supposedly from a wig. According to Swoekley’s statement, she said she was wearing a blonde wig at the time of the murders.

The prosecution does not believe MacDonald’s account of the night and claims that the physical evidence proves a staging occurred. Much blood, type O, (confirmed by blood type because DNA was not an advanced tool used in court as it is now) was found in all bedrooms where the victims were found. All the members of the family had different blood type, so finding blood type O in all bedrooms implicated Jeffrey MacDonald. The prosecution also entered into the trial interview tapes of MacDonald after the murders. His indifferent responses to the killings characterized him as cold, unremorseful, and guilty. In the CID(Criminal Investigation Department) reports on  the evidence, investigators claims that bloodstains of Colette MacDonald were found on Jeffrey MacDonald’s pajama shirt before the shirt was torn which only narrowed their focus on Jeffrey MacDonald as their prime suspect.

In the interview transcripts, MacDonald asked why he would murder his family when he was perfectly happy with his life. In response to his demanding inquiries, they reminded him of his extramarital affairs. Prosecutors found that this would be the primary reason to the heinous murders of the family.

Helena Swoekley claimed to have been witness to the murder of the MacDonald family. Retired US Marshall Jimmy Britt said in a sworn statement that he overheard Jim Blackburn threaten Swoekley to not share her statement on the stand or she would be indicted for murder. Swoekley’s mother, also named Helena, came forward sharing that her daughter confided in her two separate events that she was present during the MacDonald family murder. Swoekley claimed that she was present in his house that night to intimidate MacDonald because, as a counsel, he was being “too hard” on drug users.

Although much of the evidence is primarily circumstantial, the opposing opinions on whether Jeffrey MacDonald is innocent or guilty keep increasing.

Jeffrey MacDonald was granted an appeal after compelling witness statements made by Retired US Marshall Jimmy Britt (now deceased), human DNA found in fingernail scrapings from one of the victims not belonging to anyone from the MacDonald family, and foreign wool fibers.

Because Jim Britt and Helena Swoekley are both deceased, prosecutors see it “improper” to admit it as evidence for a new trial.

Read our entry about the Tylenol Murders, which remain unsolved

The trial began Monday for three young men suspected in a 2009 suicide bombing attempt of multiple New York City subway stations. Two of the suspects, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, pled guilty and agreed to testify against Adis Medunjanin, 28, a U.S. citizen born in Bosnia. Medunjanin has denied the charges, and his defense lawyer says he backed out of the plot with his two friends.

Prosecutors say that in 2008 the three men, who were friends in high school, traveled to Pakistan where they were trained by Al-Qaida operatives and were approached about being suicide bombers. They were seeking retaliation for the treatment of Muslims in the United States, prosecutors say. 

In September 2009, around the time of the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Zazi was arrested after driving into Manhattan with a detonator and materials to build an explosive device. Medunjanin was arrested in early 2010 after he tried to crash his car – prosecutors called the crash a failed suicide attempt.  At the trial prosecutors presented recordings of 911 emergency calls in which they say Medunjanin identified himself, made jihadist statements, and declared “We love death” immediately before the crash.

Zazi and Ahmedzay have not yet been sentenced. If convicted, Medunjanin faces up to life in prison.

Explore all our entires relating to forensic science and the role it plays in investigations and trials

Dharun Ravi, 20, a former Rutgers University student accused of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate by use of a webcam was found guilty Friday on all accounts.  Ravi was found guilty of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence, and could now face up to 10 years in jail and deportation back to his native country of India.  Because prosecutors were able to link Ravi’s actions to that of gay bias, the possible amount of time Ravi could spend in prison doubles from five years to 10.  Sentencing has been scheduled for May 21.

Ravi’s roommate, Tyler Clementi, killed himself in September of 2010 at the age of 18 by jumping off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after finding out about the secret webcam documenting his sexual relationship with another man.

After facing two counts of invasion of privacy, Molly Wei, a fellow student at Rutgers University who admitted to joining Ravi in spying on his roommate, reached a plea deal required her to testify against her friend and former high school classmate as well as to complete a three-year program on cyber bullying and do 300 hours of community service.

Ravi turned down a plea deal offered by Middlesex County prosecutors that would have allowed him to avoid jail time in exchange for undergoing counseling, doing 600 hours of community service and disposing of any information that could identify the man who appeared in the Web video with Clementi.

Prosecutors also offered to help him avoid deportation, though they said they could not guarantee it.

Ravi, who had been studying on a visa at the New Jersey university, did not testify on his own behalf.

In Twitter messages from that day, Ravi wrote that he’d gone into a friend’s room, “turned on my webcam” and saw his roommate “making out with a dude.”

Then on September 22, 2010, Clementi took a train to New York and posted a mobile status update on his Facebook page that read, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

Check out our entry about a school shooting in Ohio

Charles Manson, the infamous cult leader responsible for the murder of Sharon Tate and six others, was denied parole again on Wednesday for the 12^th and possibly last time.  Manson, now 77, did not attend the hearing where the parole board ruled he had shown no efforts to rehabilitate himself and will not be eligible for parole for another 15 years. 

Also playing heavily into the board’s decision was something Manson had said recently to one of his prison psychologists that John Peck, a member of the panel that met at Corcoran State Prison in Central California, read aloud.

“‘I’m special. I’m not like the average inmate,”‘ Peck said. “‘I have spent my life in prison. I have put five people in the grave. I am a very dangerous man.””

Authorities read a litany of Manson’s prison infractions, including the latest — the manufacture and possession of a weapon made out of a sharpened pen, for which he is serving 15 months in an isolation unit. He has not completed his GED or taken any self-improvement classes in prison.  Manson also received notoriety when he was found to be in possession of a contraband cell phone — twice — the latest in January 2011.

Check out our entry about  Brittany Norwood, who was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of her co-worker

After the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 and the capture of James “Whitney” Bulger in June 2011, two spots opened up on the FBI’s ten most wanted list. On April 10, 2012 Eric Justin Toth replaced Osama bin Laden and became the 495h fugitive to be placed on the list.

 The FBI’s most wanted list was started March 14, 1950 due to the wide public interest in a news story published in 1949 about the “toughest guys” the FBI was after. The purpose of the list is to capture dangerous terrorist and fugitives. Since its inception nearly 60 years ago, 465 of the 495 people have either been found or captured. Of these 465, nearly one third was due to recognition by someone in the public.

 So how does someone get on the FBI’s most wanted list? It begins with a spot opening on the list. A group of wanted criminal candidates are sent to the FBI Headquarters from all 56 FBI field offices. The criminal candidates are reviewed by the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) and the office of Public Affairs. The chosen criminals are sent the assistant director of the CID and finally to the FBI director for final approval.

 The 495^th spot was given to Eric Justin Toth, who also uses the alias David Bussone. Toth, a former private school teacher, is charged with possession and production of child pornography. Before an investigation could begin after pornographic images were found on a school camera he had been using, Toth was gone. He has been on the lam since June 2008 and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

 In 2008 his car was found at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport in Minnesota. Although it was suspected that Toth committed suicide at a nearby lake based on a suicide note left in his vehicle, a body was never found. Over the past four years, it is believed that Toth traveled across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

 Toth was selected because of the threat he posed to the community. Not only is he a child predator but he is an individual who is able to gain the trust of children and adults. Prior to be put on the list, he was on the Washington field office’s list and was also featured on America’s Most Wanted. A tip was received in 2009 after the broadcast about a man living in a homeless shelter in Arizona that looked like, and was later confirmed to be Toth. He has since then disappeared.

 A $100,000 reward is being offered by the FBI for anyone who has information that could lead to Toth’s arrest. If captured, Toth faces up to 30 years in prison.

Check out our entry about James Bulger, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list until his recent capture

Citizens Medical Center, located in Victoria, TX, enacted a policy about a year ago banning applicants with a BMI over 35. BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and is calculated solely based on a person’s height and weight. The policy states that an employee’s physique “’should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a health care professional,’ including an appearance ‘free from distraction’ for hospital patients. The hospitals policy compares appearance and being overweight to disqualifying characteristics such as visible tattoos or piercings. They will not fire current obese employees hired before the policy was enacted.

An issue with using BMI to measure obesity is that it provides a very limited picture. Professional athletes or heavily muscled people often have very high BMI’s, but are not obese or overweight. An athlete could have a high BMI, but a very low body fat percentage.

The hospitals policy is not illegal because weight is not covered under the employment discrimination guidelines of Texas. Texas laws only ban discrimination based on age, race, or religion.  Michigan is the only state that specifically forbids weight discrimination in hiring practices.  Six cities, including Washington DC, San Francisco, CA, Madison, WI, Santa Cruz, CA, Birmingham, NY, and Urbana, IL, also have some type of protection against weight discrimination.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified individuals based on disabilities. A disability is defined as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”  In 2008, amendments to the ADA were passed, widening the definition of what could be classified as a disability. Since the amendments, a few state and federal courts have addressed weight discrimination charges, but not many. A U.S. District Court in Florida gathered cases from all over the country regarding obesity discrimination and stated  “courts have uniformly held that obesity is not a qualifying impairment, or disability, unless it is shown to be the result of a physiological disorder.” (See ADA amendment article page 8)

 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. Complaints can be filed with the EEOC against employers, and investigators will look into the charge. The EEOC is responsible for the enforcement of parts of the ADA and all other statutes regarding employment discrimination. The interpretive guidance provided by EEOC stated “Title I of the ADA provided that “except in rare circumstances, obesity [was] not considered a disabling impairment.” (See ADA amendments article)

Rebecca Puhl, Ph.D., Director of Research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University stated that over the past ten years, weight discrimination has seen a large increase. She said compared to other forms of discrimination, it was the third most common the women reported and the fourth most common for men. A Yale University Study found that weight discrimination occurs in interpersonal relationships and employment just as often as race discrimination. Some studies have found an economic penalty associated with obesity: Obese women earn up to 6% less than their thinner counterparts for the exact same job, men up to 3% less.

There is one method of legal workplace discrimination, known as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQ). A BFOQ is a qualification for employment that is allowed to be considered during hiring and retaining of employees. These qualifications must be related to an essential job duty, and necessary for the particular place of employment. An example of this is mandatory ages of retirement for airplane pilots for safety reasons, and age caps for the hiring of police officers. Employers must prove that the requirements are necessary for the success of their business or the job before they can claim a BFOQ.

Workplace discrimination is an issue that has come up again and again, first seen a lot in the mid 1960s with regards to gender and race in particular. The most recent anti-discrimination law is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which prevents discrimination based on genetic information of an applicant or employee. Obesity is rapidly becoming an epidemic in the U.S., today, over 30% of adults are considered obese. There have been a few cases of employees who sued their employers for weight discrimination, but a precedent has not yet been established for what the boundaries or regulations of this are. It is likely an issue that will continue to come up until national policies and regulations are enacted regarding weight.

Read more on the hospital in Texas and their policy here ,here, or here

For more on workplace discrimination issues go here, here

For more on BOFQ, go here

Read about the EEOC and what they do

Article about the ADA amendments

Check out our entries about important Supreme Court cases

The killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman has gripped the nation for many reasons. As more information emerges, it seems that the night of Martin’s killing becomes more obscure.

Several 911 calls regarding suspicious and dangerous behavior were made my many of the neighbors in the area. Some called stating that “there were gunshots right outside [the] house. There’s someone screaming… [J]ust heard a guy shot. Hurry up, they are right outside [the] house”. Another call asking for help in the 911 call as she says that someone is “screaming” and “hollering” for help.

Other recounts, who went outside to witness the disturbance described that they heard a “whining…someone in distress, and then the gunshot”. They went further and recalls the whining to stop after the gunshot went off and speculated that the whining may have come from Trayvon Martin.

Witness accounts also say that Zimmerman did not appear hurt.

Detailed witness accounts can be found here and here is another article in regards to the Sanford police conduct in witness accounts.

Although the accounts establish an argument occurring, a cry for help, and a gunshot, not much is clear on how the argument escalated to a gunshot as the night was dark while the events were taking place.

Police reports state that Zimmerman had grassy stains on his back, had a bloody nose, and had injuries to the back of his head. The police department confirmed his claim for self-defense by these findings. But the controversy only deepens when a video shows Zimmerman after the shooting who appeared to be unharmed and un-bloodied. There is much speculation in Zimmerman’s account for self-defense.

Another video released by authorities to clarify the injuries of Zimmerman were released as well.

Zimmerman’s friend, Joe Oliver, spoke of the aftermath and Zimmerman’s extreme remorse. Also, he stated that Zimmerman’s injuries were treated at a hospital including his broken nose.  Along with Oliver’s statement of Zimmerman’s injuries, Robert Zimmerman Jr., brother of George Zimmerman, defended his brother in saying that medical reports will make light on Zimmerman’s injuries. Robert Zimmerman Jr. defends his brother in compelling statements here. George Zimmerman’s father, Robert Zimmerman, also speaks out in defense for his son here. Another controversial event taking place as a result of the Martin shooting is Sanford mayor’s, Jeff Triplett, overruling of police and prosecutors opposition to releasing the 911 tapes. Many say that there is no reason to turn over evidence during an investigation, as it may negatively impact the progression of the investigation. Others condoning the mayor’s act say that he had good intentions with a message that “[w]e’re not here to hide anything”.

Read our earlier entry on this case

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan survived a shot by John Hinckley Jr. The attempted assassination on President Reagan was recorded and broadcasted live on television.

Hinckley Jr. fired six times in less than 2 seconds. In the array of bullets, President Reagan along with three others were shot with a .22 caliber revolver, Long Rifle, model RG14, employed with the ‘Devastator’ bullet. This particular bullet explodes on contact but luckily the bullet striking President Reagan malfunctioned. In an effort to protect the president, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, D.C. Police officer Tom Delahanty, and Press Secretary James Brady were shot.

When President Reagan was taken to George Washington Hospital, he comically noted “I hope you are all Republicans”.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was placed in a mental institution. It was noted that Hinckley chose to fire at President Reagan in hopes to capture the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

Check out our entry on a recent hearing Hinckley had

On the morning of September 29, 1982, 12 year old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, IL went to her parent’s room not feeling well. To ease their daughter’s pain, they gave her a Tylenol extra strength capsule. Shortly thereafter she was found in the bathroom and later pronounced dead. Not long after this, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, IL was found unconscious and rushed to a hospital where he died just a few hours later. While mourning the loss of their loved one, Janus’s brother, Stanley and sister-in-law, Theresa took a Tylenol capsule from the same bottle Adam had. They too would suffer the same fate as Adam, dying soon after. It was at this point that investigators became suspicious of the three family members death. Toxicology reports would confirm that there was indeed a connection between the four deaths, that being cyanide. McNeil Consumer Products, a daughter company of Johnson & Johnson who manufactured the Tylenol was immediately notified and a nationwide recall of the 31 million Tylenol bottles in circulation in addition to broadcasting warnings of the dangers of the Tylenol poisonings. In addition to the five bottles recovered from the victims’ homes, three more tampered bottles were recovered due to the media frenzy that ensued. Despite these efforts, Mary McFarland (Elmhurst, IL), Paula Prince (Chicago, IL), and Mary Reiner (Winfield, IL), would succumb to the cyanide laced Tylenol, leading to a total of seven victims.

Testing of the recovered Tylenol bottles found that the capsules had been laced with approximately 65mg of the highly toxic compound potassium cyanide, nearly 10,000 times the amount to kill an average person. An investigation carried out by the FBI and local Chicago police department found that the tampered bottles came from different factories. Tampering in the initial production of the Tylenol capsules was ruled out since all of the deaths occurred in the Chicago area.

The original theory behind the crimes was a culprit who took the Tylenol bottles from drug and grocery stores in the Chicago area over a period of weeks, opened the capsules and added potassium cyanide, after which the culprit would return the bottles to the stores to be purchased. Due to the capsule form of the Tylenol, one could not tell the pills had been tampered with. To this date, the crimes remain unsolved.

Recently, Scott Bartz wrote an expose titled The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder, and Johnson & Johnson which explores a very different story of the murders and why the case was never closed. Bartz, a former Johnson & Johnson employee, had another theory in which the tampered Tylenol capsules were introduced at the manufacturer warehouses rather than being tampered and replaced in stores. He goes on to state that Johnson & Johnson later learned about this information and intentionally hid the evidence.

The expose compiles numerous sources of information, including the interviews of the victim’s families, FBI, local law enforcement, and prime suspects as well as undisclosed documentation that give rise to why the murders were never solved. Some problems that Bartz encounters include lack of evidence to support a culprit tampering with bottles in stores, the closely guarded distribution system by the makers of Tylenol, and the manipulation of facts by investigators. The inconsistencies that occurred with the production & distribution of the Tylenol capsules are believed to be due to the relationships of the company executives and their political motivations. For more information on Bartz’s book, visit this website 
UPDATES

In the years following the Tylenol murders, a number of copycat attacks occurred (ie. The 1986 Excedrin Tampering Murders). This led to tamper-resistant packaging and improved quality control of drug manufacturing through packaging reforms and the development of federal anti-tampering laws.

With new advances in forensic technology, the case is being re-investigated. A prime suspect at the time of the crimes was James W. Lewis, but police could not link him to the actual crimes.  In January 2009, Lewis’s home was searched for evidence and in 2010, he submitted DNA and fingerprints. The connection between Lewis and the murders is still being investigated.

On May 19, 2011, DNA samples were requested from Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber) by the FBI. At the time of the crimes, Kaczynski’s parents lived in a Chicago suburb where he occasionally stayed. Kaczynski denies any connection to the murders.

Read our  earlier entry on the Tylenol Murders

Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old high school student, was killed by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. The neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has not been charged in this case. There has been national outrage by the lack of investigation, amid allegations of racism. George Zimmerman claimed self-defense during the investigations and so the police officers let him go.

Against the 911 dispatchers suggestions, Zimmerman followed Martin because he suspected that Martin was on drugs. This resulted in Martin and Zimmerman becoming involved in a physical altercation. Zimmerman shot Martin the chest and Martin was pronounced dead at the scene.

The controversy:

A month after the death of Trayvon Martin, no arrests have been made and the Martin family demands that the police release the 911 call from Zimmerman.

Not only are the police investigation procedures being scrutinized but the Stand Your Ground law has come into focus in this case. The Stand Your Ground law expands the self-defense position to outside your home. 

There has also been a question on how the police have been conducting the investigation as they tried to ‘correct’ the witness accounts. Sanford Police Chief Billy Lee stated that there is no evidence disputing Zimmerman’s claims of self-defense. Governor Rick Scott announced March 21, 2012 that the Stand Your Ground law is being reviewed for changes to “avoid such tragedies in the future”.

A nationwide petition has been developed for Zimmerman’s arrest. Martin’s family has asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the FBI to get involved in the death of Trayvon Martin. In lieu of the tragedy, the U.S. Justice Department announced its investigation being launched into the case. Also, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has added “muscle” to the case.

On March 19, 2012, a young girl who was on the phone with Martin at the time of the altercation came forward to the family attorney Benjamin Crump.

The investigations by multiple agencies are continuing while petitions for Zimmerman’s arrest are rising quickly. On April 10, 2012, a grand jury is to convene on whether to charge Zimmerman.

Seminole County State Attorney Norman Wolfinger removed himself from the case. Governor Rick Scott appointed Angela Corey, a prosecutor in Jacksonville, to take over the case surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin.

Read our entry about a recent phenomenon known as flash robbery