Forensic Forgery

Although rare, forensic forgery is always something to be considered. Fingerprints have been "found" at a crime scene that turned out to be exact photocopies of fingerprint cards. Some incarcerated defendants have tried to have their own dna planted at the scene of a copy-cat crime.

Normally, we tend to dismiss the possibility of forensic forgery since it is viewed as being incredibly rare. However as technical knowledge and abilities become more widely spread, we may have to start giving greater thought to the question of the authenticity of evidence purported to have come from a crime scene.


Recently the New York Times published an article discussing the relative ease with which a scientifically manipulated dna sample can be left at a crime scene.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html?_r=1

The article discussed the ability to fabricate a dna sample if the forger merely has knowledge of the subject's profile as well as the ability to fabricate a serum or saliva sample that contains the dna of a person other than the actual donor.

Sometimes a "gold standard" test can be shown to be very tarnished gold.