Marco Bosmans is a senior forensic advisor and private investigator at Forensicon BV, where he has worked for the past 18 years. He began his career as a teacher in Forensic Sciences, where he identified a fundamental imbalance in the justice system: while the law guaranteed an “Equality of Arms,” in practice, only the prosecution and court had access to forensic expertise, leaving the defense without vital resources.
To address this gap, he helped establish public forensic services. Educated as a biotechnologist with a specialization in genetics, Marco now applies his expertise to champion fairness. He serves as a generalist forensic advisor and a specialist in complex forensic DNA-evidence, ensuring all parties have access to objective scientific interpretation.
The “equality of arms” principle demands a fair balance in the resources and opportunities available to the prosecution and the defense. But within the realm of criminalistics, is this balance truly achieved?
Ideally, the interpretation of forensic science should be independent, non-biased, and free of context. The reality, however, is that the interpretation of scientific results is often done in the light of competing legal interests.
The prosecution benefits from proving a suspect’s guilt; the defense serves the best interests of their client, whether guilty or not.
In this talk, Marco Bosmans will discuss the profound risks and difficulties forensic experts face in remaining the truly independent party. He will explore the struggle to simply clarify the meaning of evidence for the court, in an attempt to get as close as we possibly can to the truth and keep the “equality of arms” principle intact.
