8127/frame/fm

 
Figure 7.1
 
Stain A.
This bloodstain was found on the wardrobe door in the
bedroom in which Marilyn Sheppard was murdered. In Dr. Paul Kirk’s reconstruc-
tion of this homicide, he determined that Stain A was created through a different
mechanism of blood deposition than the one responsible for the main pattern of
relatively fine blood spatter on the door. This was a key discovery, and led him
to conclude that the assailant was himself injured during the incident.
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158
Principles and Practice of Criminalistics
e.
Combining Source Determination and Inference of 
Contact.................................................................................... 175
f.
O. J. and Inference — Is the Tube Half Full or Half 
Empty? .................................................................................... 175
6.
Who Makes the Inference?............................................................ 176
B.
Reconstruction ...................................................................................... 177
1.
The State of the Practice............................................................... 177
a.
Definition of Reconstruction ................................................ 178
2.
Capabilities of Reconstruction ..................................................... 178
a.
Predictive Value of a Simulation........................................... 180
b.
Corroboration or Refutation of Statements......................... 180
3.
Limitations of Reconstruction...................................................... 181
a.
Bias and Expectation.............................................................. 182
b.
Overinterpretation ................................................................. 182
c.
Reconstruction or Reenactment ........................................... 188
C.
Summary ............................................................................................... 188
References ...................................................................................................... 189
“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing,” answered Holmes thought-
fully. “It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your 
own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompro-
mising manner to something entirely different.”