Would Evidence for Radiometric Dating Stand Up in a Court of Law?
by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Forensic science is very important in obtaining evidence about the past. Naturally, the more recent the evidence, the more persuasive it is, especially in a court of law. To send someone to jail or certain other instances nowadays in American courts, guilt must be proven "beyond the shadow of a doubt". In small-claims court, someone needs "a preponderance of the evidence". Good thing that procedures have advanced from the time of "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker, who tried 13,490 cases his ownself and sentenced 160 who were convicted to death by hanging (but only 79 actually attended a necktie party). Evolution and radiometric dating use forensic science , but we're not talking about what happened last week or a few months ago. Rather, these are the ultimate " cold case files ", supposedly going back millions of years. Radiometric dating is a mite different though, since the measurements of parent-daughter materials a