By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, Tom Owen, and Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based audio engineer and forensics expert, have independently concluded that the furtive pleas for help clearly heard on the 911 tapes are not George Zimmerman’s. Both acknowledged experts used voice enhancing software, but different techniques, to rate the probability of the voice being Zimmerman’s at no more than 48%. A 90% match is considered scientifically reliable.
In a report published by the Orlando Sentinel, Owen said he derived his conclusions based on biometric analysis. “It basically just means using personal characteristics for identification. A fingerprint scanner is an example of a biometric device. Much as the ridges of a human hand produce a fingerprint, each human voice has unique, distinguishable traits, Owen says. ‘They’re all particular to the individual.'” The expert recently used the technique to identify the accused killer of Sheila Davalloo in a 911 call made almost a decade ago.
Owen, who also served as the chief engineer for the New York Public Library’s Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, said that, “as a result of [the testing], you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it’s not Zimmerman.”
Ed Primeau agreed but went further, saying that, under the known circumstances, ” I believe that’s Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt. That’s a young man screaming.” Primeau used the technique of voice enhancement to reach his conclusion. Unlike biometric analysis, his method does require an in-context sample of the voice for testing.
An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer published in 2010 describes the 66-year-old Owen and his cohort, Stuart Allen, this way:
[The pair have] more than six decades of experience between them in the forensic audio profession. They’ve worked with the FBI and other federal agencies, police departments, private detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and news organizations. Many courts have designated them as expert witnesses. They’re good friends who sometimes are on opposing sides, but respect each other’s abilities. “Both of us are known as sort of contrarians,” Owen said.
Primeau is a former sound engineer in the movie industry who worked with
pop stars Anita Baker, Bob Seger, and Barry Manilow. Primeau has over thirty years of experience in voice identification and is a registered investigator for the American College of Forensic Examiners. He describes his work in voice identification as:
There can sometimes be differences in speech patterns that can help identify clues in your identification puzzle. I look for several similarities as well as differences, nasal resonance differences, voice tone with regard to inflection both similarities and differences.
The test results seem to present another blow to Zimmerman’s credibility who claimed that it was his voice on the tape — and not the African-American teen — heard crying out for help mere seconds before the fatal gun shot.
It is likely that similar audio testing is being conducted by the FBI’s Digital Evidence Laboratory’s Forensic Audio, Video, and Image Analysis Unit, based in Quantico, Virginia. Should they reach the same conclusions as Owen and Primeau, Zimmerman would almost certainly face charges in the death. An opposite result would go a long way in substantiating his claim of self-defense.
Source; msnbc; Orland Sentinel; Cleveland Plain Dealer
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Mespo said: The sad bottom line on this case is that, regardless of outcome, one young life is gone and another is ruined because a concealed weapon was interjected into a senseless situation that would have been resolved in less than 6 minutes had Zimmerman just sat in his vehicle and waited. Zimmerman would not have gone after or stopped anybody that night unless he had his courage in his holster. It’s an “Armed Citizen” story without the fake “happy” ending. Zimmerman won’t get over it and neither will Martin’s parents or Zimmerman’s family or on and on.
Viva the Second Amendment and machismo. This gun cost scores of lives and to what purpose? So Zimmerman could play cop and protect the neighborhood from a non-threat?
Too many people arguing about his position in second paragraph so I wont go there but as to his first I think the loss for each family has been lost in this media fired rush to judgement.
“Resignation of Police Chief in Martin Case Is Rejected” is the third title. The link remains the same.
Same link as before, new story. (I would have thought that the old story might have remained the same, with an update, but it looks like they rewrote the article, using the same link.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/us/chief-bill-lee-jr-expected-to-resign-in-trayvon-martin-case.html?hp
New Wrinkle in Plan for Police Chief in Trayvon Martin Case to Resign
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: April 23, 2012
SANFORD, Fla. — Hours after the city negotiated the resignation of the police chief who temporarily stepped aside in the furor over the death of Trayvon Martin, the city commission on Monday voted against the plan.
“anon:
The sad bottom line on this case is that, regardless of outcome, one young life is gone and another is ruined because a concealed weapon was interjected into a senseless situation that would have been resolved in less than 6 minutes had Zimmerman just sat in his vehicle and waited. Zimmerman would not have gone after or stopped anybody that night unless he had his courage in his holster. It’s an “Armed Citizen” story without the fake “happy” ending. Zimmerman won’t get over it and neither will Martin’s parents or Zimmerman’s family or on and on.
Viva the Second Amendment and machismo. This gun cost scores of lives and to what purpose? So Zimmerman could play cop and protect the neighborhood from a non-threat?”
I think I agree with this to about 98% or so.
I have some qualms because it does seem Zimmerman was constitutionally justified to walk through that neighborhood with a gun, and even to ignore the dispatcher. And there seems ample reasonable doubt as to what actually happened.
I have some qualms because even though I regard Zimmerman as dumber and less noble than Philip Francis Queeg, do you remember that speech that Barney Greenwald (nice fine Jewish lawyer) gave to Maryk and Keefer at the end?
Well I’m a little worried that in other occasions society would be wise to encourage Zimmerman and people like Zimmerman to take heroic stupid actions at times. Like rafflaw running into a burning building. Like Queeg signing up in the Navy and protecting all us college boys, or even, yuck making Col Jesseps’ speech just that much harder to disagree with even as we know we should.
In general, though, I am against lynch mobs and that is what this blog has overflowed with in recent weeks.
Now, for Otteray Scribe, that’s proof enough I want to kills Jews and lynch blacks.
Malisha,
If Tom Owen’s claims survive a Daubert, or Frye not that I know what those are, to even be heard before a jury, there will have been a travesty of justice.
It would be like a creationist surviving a Daubert or Frye to “do battle” against evolution.
It would be allowing a jury to decide which is more scientifically accurate, creationism or evolution.
Tom Owens is a complete and total fraud. His diplomas are fraudulent from diploma mills. His software cannot do what he claims it can do. He had almost zero evidence to work with, and certainly not the evidence people in his field normally require to do such work.
Mespo, and Otteray and Gene Howington have been defending this total fraudster scam artist snake oil salesman for weeks, because:
1) They used him to lynch Zimmerman
2) Mespo is a lawyer and he cannot begin to believe that all these lawyers in their fine suits and amusing stories of being a 2L could possibly be wrong.
3) Otteray is a forensic psychologist and he peddles the exact same line of bullshit as Tom Owens and so though he knows the truth, he cannot admit that. Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” OR as Otteray implements it: he makes his money selling forensic psychology to the courts, no way will he impeach it in a blog.
So though Mespo has nothing to go on besides a bunch of courts admitting this fraud, and even though now numerous others have debunked Owens’ credentials and his procedure and his technology, Mespo finds himself stuck, because Mark, though presumably a nice guy we all would like to beer with, well his arrogance goes to 12, and he finds it almost impossible to ever admit he was epically wrong.
That is almost a good trait to have in your advocate until he drives you off a cliff or carefully lawyers you onto death row and won’t admit how he fucked up.
anon:
I’m no respecter of persons. I like reason tempered with mercy. It’s a classic combination, you know.
anon:
The sad bottom line on this case is that, regardless of outcome, one young life is gone and another is ruined because a concealed weapon was interjected into a senseless situation that would have been resolved in less than 6 minutes had Zimmerman just sat in his vehicle and waited. Zimmerman would not have gone after or stopped anybody that night unless he had his courage in his holster. It’s an “Armed Citizen” story without the fake “happy” ending. Zimmerman won’t get over it and neither will Martin’s parents or Zimmerman’s family or on and on.
Viva the Second Amendment and machismo. This gun cost scores of lives and to what purpose? So Zimmerman could play cop and protect the neighborhood from a non-threat?
Here are some more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/17/us/errors-at-fbi-may-be-issue-in-3000-cases.html
http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120422/NEWS0107/204220388/
Hey mespo, it’s actually refreshing to hear a proudly self-claimed progressive liberal like you denounce Frontline and pro-publica.
I mean, it demonstrates your arrogance sure, but seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a liberal denounce those organizations. Especially Frontline.
So good on you for taking that initiative and running with it.
Anon, there can be a battle of the experts with a bunch of guys on one side showing all their curricula vitae and getting through voir dire and then the guys on the other side doing the same. (Guys includes both male and female experts in my shorthand, please.) Fine There can be a battle of the “fact” witnesses with a few saying this and a few more saying that. There can certainly be a battle of the “character witnesses.” On and on, no problem. Surely the side that is opposing what each witness says will attack their credibility. But if, say, the experts who say the “HELP HELP” voice is not Zimmerman’s are considered pretty good by the jury, and if, say, the experts who claim it IS Zimmerman’s voice yelling “HELP HELP” are considered a little bit not so good by the jury, then the mere question: “WHO DID IN FACT YELL HELP HELP” is not going to be the question at all. The question is going to be: DID GEORGE ZIMMERMAN LIE ABOUT THAT RIGHT OFF THE BAT WHILE TRAYVON MARTIN’S BODY WAS STILL WARM AND HIS BLOOD WAS FLOWING INTO THE GROUND?
The entire self-defense argument, if Zimmerman can sustain one, will be hinged on his CREDIBILITY.
Right now, probably only those people who are sure Trayvon Martin ran after and jumped Zimmerman have firm convictions about George Zimmerman’s credibility. Folks who think that would be unlikely are probably thinking, “hmmmmm, that sounds like a lie to me.” And one of the things they are watching is the voice-print evidence.
It’s not, after all, about who was right or wrong in the killing. It’s about whether Zimmerman (the sole surviving witness to the pre-killing physical transactions) can be believed.
Hey OS, the FBI will never release a report identifying who was screaming based on Tom Owen’s software and the evidence that Tom Owen had.
NEVER.
EVER.
That said, the FBI Labs have had long known problems in their labs.
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/fbilab1/00exesum.htm
http://dnapolicyinitiative.org/american-bar-association-wants-changes-after-report-slams-doj-over-forensic-errors/
OS:
“When the FBI forensic labs come up with their final findings, what will your excuse be then?
************************
Obviously, the FBI got it wrong, too. Just ask Frontline and Pro-Publica.
Careful there sport, your hood and armband are slipping.
Shorter Otteray Scribbler: Treknobabble, treknobabble, aerobatics, here’s my family, treknobablble, boasting, boasting, boasting treknobabble about my family, I’m a psychologist don’t you know, boast, boast, expert witness, treknobabble, I think you’re hitler, treknobabble.
Turley: he was overcharged.
Dershowitz: he was overcharged.
Merritt: he was overcharged.
Anon: I think he was overcharged.
Scribbler: Anon, stop acting so grandiose!
Merritt: the science behind automatic scream identification is not there.
Maguire: the science behind automatic scream identification is not there and these guys are frauds.
Some other website I linked to up above: the science behind automatic scream identification is not there and these guys are frauds.
Ed fucking Primeau: I don’t believe in automatic scream identification.
Anon: these guys seem to be frauds. I believe the science behind automatic scream identification is not there.
Scribbler: Anon, stop acting so grandiose!
Scribbler: treknobabble about automatic scream identification and boasting of his certification as expert witless.
Scribber: people that don’t agree with me are neonazis.
” get it now: The lawyers in all those cases were wrong. The judges were wrong, too. The juries who accepted his evidence were mistaken. The FBI was wrong to use him. Tom Owens is demonstrably wrong for developing software which he uses to amplify and analyze voices. ”
Yes, Mark,
That is precisely what Frontline and Pro-publica say.
Has this never happened before?
Are you shocked to find the courts have systematically gotten it wrong for so wrong? Have a lawyer break the news to you about separate but equal.
And you can reread my analysis of Tom’s claims on his website to discover why his website and his materials there in no way backed up his claims as to what the software can do.
But seriously, I applaud you for your ability to see past all of Tom’s fake diplomas and the fake institutions he set up without ever showing working software to compare him to Thomas Edison who could walk into a courtroom turn on a light and then explain how that worked.
Most of us are not so open minded and seeing just one fake diploma, or one fake paper institution would dismiss him, but you are wise enough to see past all of that and accept his claim of software automatic scream identification without bothering to ask for a demonstration of same or technical discussion of same.
Because after all, all those courts and lawyers couldn’t be wrong.
Arrogance, yours goes to 12.
anon: Grandiose much? Comparing your drivel with legitimate defense attorneys such as Professors Turley and Dershowitz? The false equivalences are getting deep in here.
When the FBI forensic labs come up with their final findings, what will your excuse be then?
“The Zimmerman peanut gallery will just not let it go. That is an awful lot of mental gymnastics to absolutely no point. In view of the fact that Stormfront and other neonazi/KKK front organizations are circling the wagons in support of Zimmerman, it makes one wonder what the agenda might be.”
That’s right Scribe, anyone who defends Zimmerman in any manner is a member of Stormfront or a neoNazi.
This includes Professor Turley and Jeralyn Merritt and Alan Dershowitz who like me, have wondered about the overcharging and question Tom Owen’s scream identification.
Nice little smear campaign there Otteray.
Some logic and nice ethics as presented by a certified court expert witness in forensic psychiatry.
anon:
I get it now: The lawyers in all those cases were wrong. The judges were wrong, too. The juries who accepted his evidence were mistaken. The FBI was wrong to use him. Tom Owens is demonstrably wrong for developing software which he uses to amplify and analyze voices. Hell, I bet Edison was wrong for explaining effective incandescent bulbs because he invented them. There is no authority on anything. An appeal to to authority means nothing even if the authority is real and acknowledged and his testimony has been accepted most everywhere he’s tried to give it. The Orlando Sentinel was duped, too.
And, of course, anon is right.
I see, Mr. White Rabbit. Now I see.
Gene & mespo,
The Zimmerman peanut gallery will just not let it go. That is an awful lot of mental gymnastics to absolutely no point. In view of the fact that Stormfront and other neonazi/KKK front organizations are circling the wagons in support of Zimmerman, it makes one wonder what the agenda might be.
Nah, I don’t really wonder at all.
“I truly do not understand” said anon.
And that would have been a perfect place for a period.