8127/frame/fm

 
h.
The Big Picture
The scope of the report will depend in part on the breadth of the laboratory.
A specialty laboratory may only receive a few items of one evidence type to
analyze, and may be totally unaware of the results of other types of evidence
or even similar evidence analyzed in another laboratory. Analysts in the same
laboratory have been known to produce separate reports for similar analyses
of different cuttings from the same garment. It seems obvious that, at least
within the same specialty laboratory, or the same section of a full-service
laboratory, a single report should compile all the results. This then allows
the internal reviewer to note any glaring discrepancies before the report leaves
the laboratory. Someone with a general criminalistics background should
review all of the reports generated from the evidence in a single case, regard-
less of discipline or jurisdiction. It would be useful for this person to write
a comprehensive overview report that would assist the detective and attorneys
in understanding how all of the physical evidence fits together. Although this
was common practice in the 1960s and 1970s when most criminalists were
generalists, and most laboratories were full-service laboratories, it is now
unusual. Some laboratories are attempting to reinstitute this valuable practice
and one has proffered a modern prototype of this model (Zeppa, 1999).
The independent reviewer has a slightly different responsibility in that
he may be the only scientific expert with which a defense attorney has contact.
Especially when funding is tight, the independent reviewer may be asked to
look at several reports, both within and outside of his specialty, to help the
attorney understand their meaning. The reviewer may assist the attorney by
summarizing the totality of the physical evidence in the case, relating its
import, and clarifying its limitations. He may also proffer alternative hypoth-
eses and suggest further defense testing. To be of maximum assistance to the
attorney client, the independent expert should have at least a working famil-
iarity with forensic specialties outside of his own discipline.