4 ms·
Unless you are reading a different story: Ballistic reports showed the shells matched the shotgun, but police declined to prosecute Salinas. Maybe I don't und
by Zimahl 13y ago
Unless you are reading a different story:
Ballistic reports showed the shells matched the shotgun, but police declined to prosecute Salinas.
Maybe I don't understand shotgun forensics very well, but as I understand the only ballistics that they could match it the gauge of the shotgun and possibly match gunpowder residue. Other than that, shotguns don't have riflings, which make them very difficult to pinpoint as a weapon.
As an example, if I were to fire 5 different shotguns of the same gauge but use the same shells and you either had the expended shell or the result of the shot (buckshot or slug), you most likely wouldn't be able to tell which rifle shot which shell.
While the jury may still have had plenty to convict on with other circumstantial evidence (motive, means, opportunity), I will say that this is a bad decision.
- jlgreco 13y agoThey might be able to match the pattern the firing pin left on the primer. (I don't know if they can do that or not, just an idea.)
- hga 13y agoIf the report is accurate, shells are what's left behind, the assembly of brass and plastic that you reload and all that. And for those on the brass base there will be extractor and ejector markings, and as jlgreco reminds me, maybe the firing pin, although how good they will be as evidence I don't know. I.e. sufficiently unique, then again a lot of this science isn't really anything resembling science as it's used outside the judicial world, excepting DNA matching. BTW, some shotgun barrels do have rifling for shooting unrifled slugs for deer hunting (e.g. http://www.brownells.com/items/rifled-shotgun-barrels.aspx http://www.brownells.com/items/rifled-shotgun-barrels.aspx), but I'll bet that's not the case here.