CSI: Reader Response
As a homicide detective for The Los Angeles Police Department, I was encouraged by "The CSI Effect" [April 25]. Not mentioned in your article, however, is that criminals learn from these programs. Gang members are starting to pick up spent casings after a shooting or use revolvers that don't eject casings. Shows like CSI have taught them that casings can be digitally imaged and compared with those in databases or with the weapon itself if police recover it. Think of the real CSI effect: Criminals are getting smarter.
GREG STEARNS
Los Angeles
As a forensic scientist who testifies routinely, I read "The CSI Effect" with interest. I believe you missed an important facet of the discussion of expert witnesses: the role of the defense expert. Unlike prosecution experts, defense experts can earn up to $2,500 per court appearance to disparage analytical work done by crime labs. Many "defense experts" have never performed the forensic analysis or used the instruments they are criticizing, and some misrepresent to a lay jury what the scientific literature says. So when you assert that many forensic techniques have never been tested to see if they are valid, please examine who is making those assertions.
MICHELE GLINN
Okemos, Mich.
"The CSI Effect" gives good illustrations of the detrimental effects TV has on criminal investigations and adjudication. In my opinion, with laws focused on the well-being of the accused, the score is 13 to 1 in favor of the defense. The prosecution has to convince 13 minds--12 in the jury box and the judge. The defense has only to inject doubt in one mind of the 13. This should be better balanced.
CARL S. HELMLE
Johnson, Kan.
Agency Controversy
"A Drug War Boondoggle" [May 9], about the National Drug Intelligence Center, was pretty much on target. Nonetheless, you could have performed a noteworthy service by highlighting the irony of my predicament. Former Attorney General Janet Reno gave me a mandate to "fix" NDIC. My handpicked staff and I accomplished this by holding employees accountable, promoting and rewarding performers, and counseling and, when necessary, disciplining poor performers. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice under John Ashcroft didn't see it that way.
MICHAEL T. HORN
Former Director
National Drug Intelligence Center
Clifton, Va.
Rx Refusal
I was surprised by the news that some pharmacists have refused to fill prescriptions for oral contraceptives on supposed moral grounds ["Just Say Yes--or No," April 25]. The article failed to point out that birth control pills have a number of uses, including controlling heavy menstrual bleeding. To refuse to fill a prescription can not only prove an inconvenience for women but pose a health risk as well.
LETTY VALDIVIEZ
Chicago
Condos Grow Up
It was interesting to read "Condo Crazy" [April 25]. I have grown up in the Chicago area and witnessed the changing real-estate development over the past 20 years. Where in my childhood there were desolate railroad tracks and dirt patches, there are towering, attractive condo homes.
JANIS LICUANAN
Mount Prospect, Ill.
Correction: In "Mistakes Were Made" [Paying for College, April 18], Allison Sandera was incorrectly described as not noticing the personal expenses estimate as part of expected costs at New York University. In fact, she said that personal expenses were underestimated.
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This story appears in the May 16, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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