K. Raymond Da-Boi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by K. Raymond Da-Boi
Academia Letters, 2021
At best, the book, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, by Radley Balko and Tucker Carringto... more At best, the book, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, highlights the interplay of science and the law. It tells the story of a failed and broken system; how it was infiltrated and exploited through well-crafted unethical scientific practices ("bad science") to achieve selfish, nonscientific aims, and the deleterious effects of poor, flawed, and biased law enforcement and criminal investigation procedures, facilitated and sustained largely by inherent systemic challenges, entrenched structural/institutionalized racism, etc., on scores of innocent victims. Among others, it highlights, in particular, the importance of forensic ("expert witness") testimony in court processes and the critical role of forensic science, as a whole, in criminal investigations, in general, how forensic pathology has thrived through the years, and how unprofessional or dubious forensics and law enforcement practices including "junk science," "bad policing," "faulty eye witness identification" can "compromise" the evidence, and how these can and have led to conviction and sentencing of thousands of innocent people across the US, and Mississippi, in particular over the years. The book plot exposes and explores the loopholes in a system mired in antiquity, duplicity, as well as connivance between dubious forensic scientists and law enforcement officers, and legal practitioners-who, by their naivety, complacency, and complicity, thwarted and undermined the very law they swore to uphold. Although the story occurred largely in Mississippi and Louisiana, and although what happened is rather shocking and unbelievable, "the component parts" [of the story] as suggested by the authors, reflect and resonate with contemporary law enforcement in the US: "dubious forensics, innocence, the intersection of science and the law, and the structural racism built into the criminal justice system…are issues that find their way into just about every courtroom in America" (p. xiii).
A Review of The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South -Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, 2021
At best, the book, the Cadaver King and the Country Dentist highlights the interplay of science a... more At best, the book, the Cadaver King and the Country Dentist highlights the interplay of science and the law. The book plot exposes and explores the loopholes in a system mired in antiquity, duplicity, as well as connivance between dubious forensic scientists and law enforcement officers, and legal practitioners – who, by their naivety, complacency and complicity, thwarted and undermined the very law they swore to uphold.
Academia Letters , 2021
Drawing on Encamacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez conception of ‘coloniality of migration’ and the notion... more Drawing on Encamacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez conception of ‘coloniality of migration’ and the notion of “racial capitalism,’ this short essay highlights and explores, among others, some of the complexities, the politics and discursive nature of the current European refugee crisis juxtaposed with some of the disconcerting moral, analytical, and ethical questions it raises, the contradictions and challenges it poses, and the need to understand this ‘crisis’ from many different perspectives: political, economic, regional/international, humanitarian, legal, historical. The essay focuses mostly on the economic and political connections between asylum and migration and the historical and discursive contexts of the European refugee crisis.
Academia Letters, 2021
At best, the book, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, by Radley Balko and Tucker Carringto... more At best, the book, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, highlights the interplay of science and the law. It tells the story of a failed and broken system; how it was infiltrated and exploited through well-crafted unethical scientific practices ("bad science") to achieve selfish, nonscientific aims, and the deleterious effects of poor, flawed, and biased law enforcement and criminal investigation procedures, facilitated and sustained largely by inherent systemic challenges, entrenched structural/institutionalized racism, etc., on scores of innocent victims. Among others, it highlights, in particular, the importance of forensic ("expert witness") testimony in court processes and the critical role of forensic science, as a whole, in criminal investigations, in general, how forensic pathology has thrived through the years, and how unprofessional or dubious forensics and law enforcement practices including "junk science," "bad policing," "faulty eye witness identification" can "compromise" the evidence, and how these can and have led to conviction and sentencing of thousands of innocent people across the US, and Mississippi, in particular over the years. The book plot exposes and explores the loopholes in a system mired in antiquity, duplicity, as well as connivance between dubious forensic scientists and law enforcement officers, and legal practitioners-who, by their naivety, complacency, and complicity, thwarted and undermined the very law they swore to uphold. Although the story occurred largely in Mississippi and Louisiana, and although what happened is rather shocking and unbelievable, "the component parts" [of the story] as suggested by the authors, reflect and resonate with contemporary law enforcement in the US: "dubious forensics, innocence, the intersection of science and the law, and the structural racism built into the criminal justice system…are issues that find their way into just about every courtroom in America" (p. xiii).
A Review of The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South -Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, 2021
At best, the book, the Cadaver King and the Country Dentist highlights the interplay of science a... more At best, the book, the Cadaver King and the Country Dentist highlights the interplay of science and the law. The book plot exposes and explores the loopholes in a system mired in antiquity, duplicity, as well as connivance between dubious forensic scientists and law enforcement officers, and legal practitioners – who, by their naivety, complacency and complicity, thwarted and undermined the very law they swore to uphold.
Academia Letters , 2021
Drawing on Encamacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez conception of ‘coloniality of migration’ and the notion... more Drawing on Encamacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez conception of ‘coloniality of migration’ and the notion of “racial capitalism,’ this short essay highlights and explores, among others, some of the complexities, the politics and discursive nature of the current European refugee crisis juxtaposed with some of the disconcerting moral, analytical, and ethical questions it raises, the contradictions and challenges it poses, and the need to understand this ‘crisis’ from many different perspectives: political, economic, regional/international, humanitarian, legal, historical. The essay focuses mostly on the economic and political connections between asylum and migration and the historical and discursive contexts of the European refugee crisis.