Radley Balko
Investigative journalist writing on policing, forensics and wrongful convictions at The Watch, previously at the Washington Post, Huffington Post and Reason. His reporting on the Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne and the bite-mark analyst Michael West preceded nine exonerations.
Radley Balko did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Our reading
Forensic experts exposed as frauds, and the prosecutors who keep using them, face no consequences.
Their wordsAnd while some courts have ruled that Hayne and West aren’t credible experts, the two men never faced any real accountability.
↗The framing of Chris Duncanradleybalko.substack.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsProsecutors tended to choose doctors they could trust to give them the results they wanted.
↗The framing of Chris Duncanradleybalko.substack.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Our reading
A broken criminal justice institution survives precisely because it serves the people who run it.
Their wordsThe old system stubbornly defied reform because it served the people in power.
↗The framing of Chris Duncanradleybalko.substack.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Our reading
Bite-mark matching is junk science, and the courts have admitted it for five decades anyway.
Their wordsTo be clear, bitemark evidence is junk science. There has never been any scientific research to support the idea that bites on human skin can be matched to the teeth of one person, to the exclusion of everyone else.
↗The framing of Chris Duncanradleybalko.substack.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 8 weeks earlier
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Their wordsParticularly with gun and drug crimes, communities with more aggressive policing tend to produce more crimes in part because law enforcement polices them more aggressively.
↗A guide to racism in the criminal justice systemradleybalko.substack.com
- 2 months earlier
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Their wordsThe Reid technique works at getting confessions. But it’s less successful at getting accurate ones.
↗Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit?radleybalko.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
A confession stops the investigation that would have cleared the innocent person who gave it.
Their wordsA confession, though, will sometimes preclude police from doing the very sort of investigation that would prove the confessor’s innocence.
↗Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit?radleybalko.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsCanada and much of Europe have adopted different interrogation techniques — such as the PEACE method — which emphasize collecting reliable information over coercion. These approaches still garner confessions; they’re just more reliable.
↗Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit?radleybalko.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 months earlier
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Their wordsAnd that risks giving the impression that basic constitutional rights and restraints on police and executive power that date back to the Founding are, actually, negotiable.
↗The Constitution is not a bargaining chip for a budget negotiationradleybalko.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsAn administrative warrant is just a way for a law enforcement officers to memorialize a hunch on paper.
↗The Constitution is not a bargaining chip for a budget negotiationradleybalko.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece