Event Calendar

Thursday, September 12, 2024

(In-Person) Scientific Testimony and Reasonable Doubt: Using Your Expert to Make Skeptics of Your Jurors

Start Date: 9/12/2024 12:00 PM PDT
End Date: 9/12/2024 1:15 PM PDT

Venue Name: Spaces 2 and U - Qualtrics Building

Location:
1201 2nd Ave
Suite 912
Seattle, WA  United States  98101

Organization Name: WACDL

Contact:
WACDL Staff
Email: info@wacdl.org
Phone: (206) 623-1302

This page is for individuals who wish to attend this CLE IN-PERSON at the Qualtrics Building in downtown Seattle.
To register for the online webinar, click here.

Approved for 1.25 law & legal MCLE credits.

A trial can be won or lost based on the mindset of the jury.  A prosecutor wants jurors to be mini-detectives, filling in the "pieces of the puzzle" to convict your client.  The proper role of a juror is more akin to that of a scientist, starting with the hypothesis that the accused is innocent, and convicting only if that hypothesis is disproven beyond a reasonable doubt.  Presenting scientific testimony provides the opportunity to model that mindset for the jury and provide ammunition for a compelling reasonable doubt defense.
 
This CLE shows you how you can use your expert to activate the inner skeptic in your jurors, using the example of a federal arson trial that ended in a 10-2 split for acquittal in the face of daunting circumstantial evidence.  Dale Mann of ESi, the defense expert in the case, will share his expertise and insights.  

Hosted by Cooper Offenbecher.
 
Faculty
Dave Hammerstad was a public defender for 13 years, first in New Hampshire and then for The Defender Association in Seattle, before leaping into solo private practice in 2011.  His practices primarily felony defense in King County and federal courts in Washington and Alaska.  He enjoys travel and camping with his wife and two sons, and is currently training for the Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP) bike ride with his teenage son.  
 

Mr. Dale Mann CFI, CFEI, D-ABC, is a certified forensic chemist who has performed a wide variety of forensic analyses in support of criminal and civil investigations. His chemical and physical analyses have included thousands of investigations involving fires, bombings, homicides, assaults, break-ins, drugs and clandestine drug manufacturing, hazardous material spills, and product tampering.

He regularly assists criminal defense councils in reviewing prosecutorial investigations and trials, along with a focus on scene documentation, laboratory analyses and scenario testing. He has performed hundreds of case reviews including arsons, bombings, assaults, homicides, and drug-related events for multiple State and Federal Public Defenders.

Mr. Mann began his career in 1981 at the Washington State Patrol (WSP) Crime Laboratory, moving to the private sector when he started the Forensic Laboratory Division of MDE, a local engineering firm, in 1998. MDE merged with ESi, a national engineering firm in 2016 where the laboratory in Seattle remains the primary full-service facility for the company.

Mr. Mann has been the principal researcher and author in several topic areas involving criminalistics and forensic chemistry. He has taught at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the National Forensic Science Training Center (NFSTC). He has presented numerous papers and lectures at a variety of scientific society meetings, and has provided testimony in over 350 trials, depositions, mediations, and arbitrations.

 

Online Registration

Registration is Closed
Closed: 9/5/2024 9:00 AM

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