MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- The Florida attorney who prosecuted the Casey Anthony case is in the mid-state to talk about the trial.
State’s Attorney Jeff Ashton will speak Thursday evening at 7 p.m. on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
The presentation is part of the MTSU "Legends in Forensic Leadership" series. Ashton is recognized as the first prosecutor to use DNA evidence in the court room as part of a 1978 rape case.
In a phone conversation Thursday morning, Ashton noted that, in the years since that first case, juries have come to expect more from forensic science than it can typically provide.
“We call it the CSI effect in our profession. The basic idea is that people have come to expect cases to be solved by forensic evidence all the time, and that’s really not a realistic expectation.”
The title of Ashton’s lecture will be “A Philosophy Major’s Life in Forensic Science.” He’ll speak in the ballroom of MTSU’s new Student Union Building.
The presentation begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.