Brittany Norwood Conviction of Murder Use of Blood Pattern Analysis Evidence

Other than the shocking murder, the most interesting thing is how the Norwood had tried to conceal the crime making the public believe that she was equally a victim. After committing the crime, she inflicted injuries on herself and tied herself in the bathroom and spent the night there only to be discovered by another store employee in the morning. However, it was the narration by Norwood in her hospital bed to the detectives that placed her as the main suspect. She had claimed that two covered men had slipped into the store in the wake of shutting and assaulted her and her colleague. She claimed that the men dragged and raped them and threatened to slit her throat, but findings revealed that none of her claims were true.

Role of Blood Stain Analysis The BPA played a significant role in enabling the detectives to collect incriminating evidence on the suspect. Additionally, the analysis helped in eliminating the possibility of other individuals in the crime scene as Norwood claim. This, as a result, narrowed the work of the detectives towards focusing on just one suspect, which as a result made it easier to piece evidence that effectively convinced the jury that Norwood murdered Murray. Revelations by the BPA To serve as a crucial source of evidence especially in a case where homicide is involved, the blood pattern analysis must provide evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt. This proved to be the case by the blood pattern experts in revealing the patterns that followed from the initial stage of the attack to the eventual killing of the victim.

Such piece of evidence was crucial in helping the jury to arrive at a position that the defendant was well aware that she was committing a murder as opposed to the claims by the defendant’s attorney that she engaged in the act of murder out of her senses. Scientific Method The stringing method is the most commonly used in blood spatter analysis and the expert in the case of Norwood relied on this method to place the suspect at the scene of crime and convince the jury that she was the perpetrator. This method is applied by an analyst after taking into account the stain size, shape, and sine of bloodstains. Laan et al. (2015) assert that the technique asserts that blood will fall straight down without being affected or with very little effect of air and gravity resistance.

The tangent bloodstain technique first aims at determining the angle of impact of a blood drop. The method takes into account that blood travels in three-dimensional space before hitting a surface. According to Rajchgot (2013), once the angle is identified, the next step involves finding the point together with the area of convergence. Lastly, the expert locates the blood source at the time of the trauma. While conducting a bloodstain analysis, it is important for the expert to remain objective. , Albertini, N. , Schmidt, L. , & Thali, M. 3D bloodstain pattern analysis: Ballistic reconstruction of the trajectories of blood drops and determination of the centers of origin of the bloodstains.  Forensic Science International, 206(1-3), 22-28. Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: implementation of a fluid dynamic model for position determination of victims.