Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-11
Photography in Gourt.
It's Use and Abuse i'm the Presentation of
 Expert Testimony.

Its Use and Abuse i'm the Presentation of Expert Testimony.
 From tlss New York Sum-
 wall known photographer in this city said the other day: 1T have been for many years an expert witness in law courts and I have testified as expert in detecting forged signatures to wills oftener than any other photographer in America and yet tell you the conclusions experts pronounce in such an oracular manner from the witness box are chsff. They are worse than chaff, for they mislead.- The expert receives piece of hand writing whose genuineness is questioned, and with it another paper with handwriting known to be genuine. First he enlarges the photo graph by magnifying it, and then compares tho words, the letters, and even the down strokes and hair lines in the two pieces of writing The hand writing examined in courts is most frequently tho signatures of wills. The expert delivers a long argument to prove that his hypothesis is correct, but, when cross examlned, his statement is found to rest on ! his individual opinion. An ex surrogate of this city who had a long experience with expert photographers has said that if an ex- pert photographer is admitted to testify at all, then he should be employed ex clusively as a court officer, and his opinion should be final, that is, beyond criticism and ! cross questioning by lawyers, surrogate or judge The steps by which the court photsg, rapher reaches his conclusion should, how
 
 skilled photographer. As it is now no law yers can bring experts on each side who hold exactly contrary opinions. The people have ! instinotlvely and with reason mistrusted l these opinionated experts. I have lost faith 1 in my own former opinions, and yet they probably have had weight in deciding impor. | tant will contests.
 | Photography" he continued, 'has for l fourteen years been admitted into law courts | to furnish evidence, and it's functions are not yet understood Now, there are a mum l Der of ways In which the photographer may be in error, and yet he is an honest man, | while his evidence is taken for more than it is worth. believe, for instance, that the 1 expert evidence in the Whitaker court mar tial and the Mercy letter cases was worthless where it WAS true, and false and misleading | where 1t amounted to anything"
 | sCan you shop that ?'
 'I can. Remember that the thoroughbred | expert always has a fine spun hypothesis tC set before the judge and jury and that he brings his photographed handwritings into court and ..rgues in favor of or against thei, 1 similarity in the lines made by similar strokes of the pens. It is absurd to reason at all ir l this way, because no man writes his name | twice alike, as any bank cashier will tell you But aside from this, you see the expert l rests his argument on his enlarged photograph of tho writings, and if these photographs cannot be relied on as absolute accurate re productions of the originals, then the argu | ments of the theorists amount to nothing The photographic fac-simile may be imper feet. because the writing is not set perpsn. dicularly in front of the camera Il the writing, tips away from the cam era in any direction. then the lines in tn, photograph are distorted, by being eithel heightened or shortened. In the second place error may, nay it must orsep in through the nature of photographic paper itself, | Is not strong material, and in passing
 
 picture expands and contracts. small shee of the paper is a quarter of an inch shorts
 one way and longer the other way when dr, than it is when wet. If you print the imag lengthwise of the paper then the image i
 elongated if sidewise, then it is contracted It is idle to expect an exact copy of tn
 original writing, and many time I hay
 placed a copy upon the original writing ant
 noted the great difference in the two. Ye
 the expert will argue from the witness bo
 that because these pieces of writing un
 like, therefore the photograph shows that i | could not have been written by the persol
 who wrote the original, which is nonsense. l "But tho experts thought they had won
 great triumph when they adapted photo lith
 ography to their use," the photographer con
 tinued. Packages of Photographic pspe
 were taken before the Whitaker court mar tial. The process of making them is this
 A common photographic negative is made i
 the usual manner, only stronger than usual
 that is, there is little shading, and when tn picture is printed it is black and white. transfer is made on geiatine paper, which
 after ward blackened with transfer ink an then transferred to the Photographic stone b pressmen. On the stone the handwriting etched by workman, who may easily mak a slip with his graving tool. piece of
 line in word may be lost, or false line at dsd to a word. Now, take all these possibi 5 ities of error and notice that the theories experts rest on the slightest variations