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KMID : 0986720160240020123
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Korean Journal of Medicine and Law
2016 Volume.24 No. 2 p.123 ~ p.139
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Use of Scientific Evidences in criminal case
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Kim Su-Young
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Abstract
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Scientific evidences are imperative in legal decisions. When misused, however, they have consequences, often catastrophic enough to destroy innocent people. Therefore, using scientific evidences require prudence, and decision whether to use them in the court should be conservative. In many cases, scientific results are expressed in probability while they become either yes or no, or "0" or "1" when they are used in legal proceedings. This is way caution is required when they are interpreted.
Determination is also required for the method used to derive a scientific evidence: Is the theory employed is verifiable? Does it still hold after being published? Has it gained general approval from the relevant scientific circle? Scientific theories are not accidental products of single experiments. They can only serve as tools for deriving results after being reproduced by many different people repeatedly and when their values are recognized and maintained. Look at DNA. It has long established itself as scientific evidence thanks to the development of methods to analyze it, such as STR and PCR. But because the analysis itself is performed by human, no one can be completely sure that it is totally error free. Korea is no exception. Shortage of forensic scientists and tremendous workload on them can raise the possibility of error. To minimize such possibility, measures should be taken to identify any room for error in the overall process of handling evidences and develop the right solutions. To this end, the state needs to step in to provide guidelines and necessary support. In addition, more human resources and training programs should be secured to ensure the high quality of scientific evidences and, ultimately, help the entire judicial system progress. As mentioned earlier, while science has helped humanity enhance their quality of life and progress, it can have catastrophic consequences when it is used for criminal purposes. Therefore, more efforts should be made to ensure that scientific evidences keep serving as important tools in legal decisions.
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KEYWORD
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a criminal case, Forensic science, Scientific evidences, Credibility
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