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Germanic and Slavic societies made the first laws that medical experts must be the ones to determine cause of death in crimes.
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The book "Xi Yuan Lu" translated means "Washing Away of Wrongs" was written by Song Ci in 1248 during the Song Dynasty. It is the first written account of medicine and entomology being used to solve criminal cases.
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In 1784 John Toms shot Edward Culshaw in the head with a pistol. John was later found with a scrap of newspaper in his pocket. A corresponding piece was found in the victims head wound. Since newspapers were one of the things used to secure gunpowder in those days the matching evidence was used to convict John Toms. This was the first case where physical evidence was used to convict a suspect.
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In 1832 James Marsh was called to testify against John Bodle whom was accused of poisoning his grandfather with arsenic-laced coffee. To prove his theory he preformed the standard test which the jury was not satisfied with. To remove any reasonable doubt he developed a new test that was able to detect as little as one-fiftieth of a milligram of arsenic. He later published this test in "The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal" in 1836.
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In 1854 San Francisco useed photography for criminal identification.
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Henry Faulds and William James Herschel publish a paper describing the uniqueness of fingerprints.
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In 1984 Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered the technique for genetic fingerprinting, which revealed a era changing identification method. The technique identified the DNA variations in each human, which could be retrieved from hair, saliva and blood giving a unique identification that couldn't be argued.
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The Coroner's act established the practice of coroners being the only ones able to determine the causes of sudden, violent, and unnatural deaths.
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Juan Vucetich was the first police officer to use fingerprints as evidence in a murder investigation.
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Victor Balthazard and Marcelle Lambert were the first to publish a study on hair in forensics.
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Victor Balthazard was the first to realizes that tools used to make gun barrels never leave the same markings, and individual gun barrels leave identifying grooves on each bullet fired through it. This was the first time ballistics were used.
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After discovering the ability to record conversations police begin using recording devices to record evidence for courts.
