Dogs sniff out wrong suspect; scent lineups questioned

[rmp yellow]

Source: CNN

VICTORIA, Texas (CNN) -- The interrogation room inside the Victoria County Sheriff's Office is sterile and cold. There's a table in the middle, a one-way mirror and a hidden video camera that lets investigators watch suspects.

Michael Buchanek knows the room well. He was part of countless investigations. Buchanek spent more than 25 years with the Sheriff's Office as a commander of operations.

But on March 16, 2006, Buchanek found himself sitting in the interrogation room. This time, he was on the other side of the table. The day before, his neighbor and friend, Sally Blackwell, was found strangled to death with a rope. Her body was left in a field five miles from her home.

Buchanek sat in the interrogation room with three homicide investigators, former brothers on the force. But the investigators were no longer friends. Buchanek was now the prime suspect in Blackwell's murder.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/05/texas.sniffer.dogs.controversy/

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The man turned out to be innocent. This is troubling. I do not want to be locked up one day because some dog sniffed a bomb and "matched" it to my scent. They'd better look into the possibility that this method is junk science, as the critics are calling it.

[paulsby]

1. another huge problem

is that you can't cross examine a dog.

[mrdmk]

2. As a dog owner, dogs do not reason beyond the moment

Another way of putting it, dogs have no clue what you are asking. If it is either a past or future situation, a dog has no concept. They are not wired to think in that manner.

[caseymoz]

3. The problem is, they don't know what this dog's mental state really is that day.

The irony is that it happened to a man from Texas law enforcement. I am not sniggering at the man's misfortune, but just to say before this, he would have been participating in the same interrogations and presuming guilt on the part of the suspect.