ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses essential, practical, utilitarian, and fundamental concepts of scientific evidence and expert evidence. It provides the constructs necessary for understanding the legal aspects of forensic science and being a successful consulting and testimonial witness. “The value of liberty is impossible to quantify, but liberty is clearly cherished by our society.” Our adversarial criminal justice system is designed to ensure the application of the principles set forth in the US Constitution. The right to confront the prosecution's critical evidence through independent testing and its purported analytical effect is a fundamental right that cannot be restricted. Forensic science is a resource of the adversarial justice system, not a product of scientific inquiry. It is an essential, integral aspect of the law enforcement and judicial systems. Forensic science is the application of science to law.4 Forensic science, at its best, is used to convict the guilty and to protect and exonerate the innocent.
