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Citation |
Wright DM. J. Can. Soc. Forensic Sci. 2012; 45(2): 79-88. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2012, Canadian Society of Forensic Science, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
In September 2011, two men were convicted in United States federal court of committing hate crimes as described in The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The only forensic evidence introduced at trial was the automotive paint examinations conducted at the FBI Laboratory, involving the transfer of the top two layers of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automotive paint finish onto the front bumper of the main defendant's truck. In a typical case, suitable comparative paint samples from the victim's vehicle would have been collected from an area adjacent to any damage observed on the same body panel. However, such samples could not be obtained in this case due to extensive fire damage sustained by the vehicle as a result of the crime. The process used to obtain vehicle information, in the absence of a known sample for comparison, from the Paint Data Query (PDQ) database, industry contacts, and the internet is described |