Word: suspectedly
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Even with all this data in hand, good luck or a good tip may still be necessary to nab the suspect. But investigators are less dependent than ever on chance, and what they have unveiled this week is only a sampling of what they have in their high-tech kits. There are computer programs that turn muddy surveillance videos into crisp digital images. There are chemical scanners that probe evidence, one molecule at a time. There are experimental--and controversial--sensors that analyze a suspect's brain waves and determine what he knows and what he doesn't. The business...
...story line would make it seem. Investigations can take months, evidence can get muddled and courts, dubious about all the new gadgetry, are often reluctant to trust it. And that doesn't touch the swamp of constitutional questions raised when a prosecutor tries to wade into a suspect's brain and DNA. "TV has romanticized forensic science," says Susan Narveson, head of the forensics lab of the Phoenix, Ariz., police department and president of the American Society of Crime Lab Directors. All this creates unrealistic expectations in the minds of the public and juries...
Today most forensics labs that conduct the test rely instead on scanning electron microscopes. Just touch a bit of tape to a suspect's hands, place it under the scope and hit it with a stream of electrons. The elements in gunpowder give off distinct X-ray signatures, and if they are there, the electron beam will spot them. The drawback? "You don't get to see the terror on people's faces when you pour hot paraffin on their hands," says Fischer. "I think it encouraged some people to confess...
...principle behind the technique is that when the brain processes an image it recognizes (as opposed to one it has never seen before), it emits distinct electrical impulses that are detectable by scalp sensors. A positive response to a photo of a crime scene may mean a suspect was there before; a negative response may help confirm an alibi...
FIBERS What looks to the eye like a bit of lint actually may be a forest of clues. Scientists microscopically comb samples for human and animal hair, clothing threads, carpeting and even plant material to identify everything there and perhaps place a suspect at the scene of the crime...