Computer Forensics
Sorry to bring it up again. That horrible case in Florida with that miserable set of facts involving the innocent child has resurfaced again. This time on the wheels of forensic science and possible prosecutorial misconduct. The possible death penalty case that has been so popular in the news, Casey Anthony, ended in an acquittal several weeks ago on July 5th. The creator of the software that the government relied upon says that now says it was inaccurate.
The belief that Casey Anthony visited a website regarding chloroform 84 times was based on inaccurate data. The government believed that Ms. Anthony used chloroform to kill her two year old child. John Bradley, the chief software developer for CacheBack, the software relied upon by the police, said the conclusion reached by the police and testified to by him at trial was wrong. The New York Times reports Mr. Bradley came to the prosecution with a corrected opinion during the trial:
Mr. Bradley’s findings were not presented to the jury and the record was never corrected, he said. Prosecutors are required to reveal all information that is exculpatory to the defense. “I gave the police everything they needed to present a new report,” Mr. Bradley said. “I did the work myself and copied out the entire database in a spreadsheet to make sure there was no issue of accessibility to the data.” Mr. Bradley, chief executive of Siquest, a Canadian company, said he even volunteered to fly to Orlando at his own expense to show them the findings.
After Mr. Bradley’s testimony he redesigned his software identifying variables that were not analyzed before. His new result showed that Ms. Anthony only went to the website once, not 84 times as he had testified. He informed the government while the trial was still proceeding and saw that nothing was presented. Why was nothing presented by the government? No statement has been released by the prosecutors but this appears to be a large violation of what’s referred to as the Brady laws – laws mandating that the prosecutor disclose exculpatory evidence.