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David H. Kaye

David Kaye

Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus

Curriculum Vitae
SSRN Author Page
Forensic Science, Statistics, and the Law (an ACI scholarly blog)

Email: 
kaye@psu.edu
Phone: 
617-682-0013
Education: 

J.D., Yale Law School
M.A., Harvard University (astronomy)
B.S., MIT (physics)

Before joining the Penn State Law faculty, Professor Kaye was Regents' Professor of Law and of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. He has held visiting teaching or research appointments at Cornell University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, and Yale University. Internationally, he has taught in England and China.

Professor Kaye also worked as an Assistant Special Prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, an associate in a private law firm in Portland, Oregon, and a law clerk to Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He holds degrees in law (Yale University), astronomy (Harvard University), and physics (MIT).

Professor Kaye’s research focuses on evidence, criminal procedure, the use of science and statistics in litigation, and on genetics and the law. He has served on committees or advisory panels of the American Statistical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Commission on Forensic Science, the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Organization of Scientific Area Committees in Forensic Science, and the International Conferences on Forensic Inference and Statistics. His research has been funded by the American Bar Foundation, the Department of Commerce (NIST), the Department of Energy (Human Genome Project), and the Department of Justice (NIJ). 

Professor Kaye has been on the editorial boards of four academic journals and has repeatedly served as editor of the American Bar Association publication, Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology. His publications include 12 books, 17 book chapters, and over 180 articles and letters in journals of law, philosophy, psychology, medicine, genetics, and statistics. He is a recipient of the Association of American Law Schools’ Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the law of evidence.

In addition to pursuing these academic and professional interests, Professor Kaye has taught Aikido at Penn State, led guided tours for trekking companies, and participated in first ascents in Alaska and China.

Full Listing

Selected Books

  • The New Wigmore, A Treatise on Evidence: Expert Evidence (1st ed. 2004, 2d ed. 2011, 3d ed. 2020) Aspen Pub. (with co-authors)
  • The New Wigmore, A Treatise on Evidence: Expert Evidence (3d ed. 2021) (with David E. Bernstein, Andrew Ferguson, Jennifer L. Mnookin, & Maggie Wittlin)
  • Handbook of Forensic Statistics (David L. Banks, Karen L. Kafederer, & David H. Kaye, and Maria Tackett eds., 2021)
  • McCormick On Evidence (with Robert Mostellar ed., 8th ed. 2020) (with Kenneth S. Broun, George E. Dix, Edward J. Imwinkelried, and Eleanor Swift)
  • 2018 Supplement to the The New Wigmore, A Treatise on Evidence: Expert Evidence (Wolters Kluwer 2018) (with David E. Bernstein & Jennifer L. Mnookin) (earlier editions: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013)
  • McCormick on Evidence (3rd through 8th eds. 1984-2020) Thomson Reuters (with co-authors)
  • The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence (2010) Harvard University Press
  • Co-editor, Handbook of Forensic Statistics (2020) Taylor & Francis Group
  • Editor, Latent Print Examination and Human Factors: Improving the Practice Through a Systems Approach (2012) National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony (1st through 4th eds. 1997-2006) (with D. Faigman et al.)
  • Prove It with Figures: Empirical Methods in Law and Litigation (1997) (with H. Zeisel) (translated into Chinese and Japanese)

Selected Law Review Articles

  • "Digging into the Foundations of Evidence Law," Michigan Law Review, Vol. 115, No. 6, April 2017, pp. 915-934
  • The Ultimate Opinion Rule and Forensic Science Identification, 60 Jurimetrics J. 75 (2020)
  • Firearm-Mark Evidence: Looking Back and Looking Ahead, 68 Case. W. Res. L. Rev. 723 (2018)
  • How Daubert and Its Progeny Have Failed Criminalistics Evidence and a Few Things the Judiciary Could Do About It, 86 Fordham L. Rev. 1639 (2018)
  • The Nikumaroro Bones: How Can Forensic Scientists Assist Factfinders?, 6 VA. J. Crim. L. 101 (2018)
  • Privacy and Genetic Genealogy Data, 361 Science 857 (2018) (letter published in the "Insights" section) (with Ellen M. Greytak et al.)
  • Deadly Statistics: Quantifying an 'Unacceptable Risk' in Capital Punishment, 16 Law, Probability & Risk 7 (2017)
  • A Comment on the PCAST Report: Skip the 'Match/Non-Match' Stage, Forensic Sci. Intl. e7 (2017) (letter, with Geoffery Morrison et al.)
  • Presenting Quantitative and Qualitative Information on Forensic Science Evidence in the Courtroom, 29 Chance 37 (2016) (with Cedric Neumann et al.)
  • Frequentist Statistical Inference, in Handbook of Forensic Statistics 39 (David Banks et al. eds., 2021)
  • The Interpretation of DNA Evidence: A Case Study in Probabilities, in Science Decision Making Educational Modules (Nat'l Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Preparing the Next Generation of Policy-Makers for Science-Based Decisions ed. 2016)
  • Reliability and Validity of Forensic Science Evidence, Significance (Apr. 2019) (with Hal Stern et al.)
  • Statistical Hypothesis Testing in Law Forensic Science: A Memorandum, 130 Harv. L. Rev. F. 127 (2017)
  • Forensic Statistics in the Courtroom, in Handbook of Forensic Statistics 225 (David Banks et al. eds., 2021)
  • "Maryland v. King: Per Se Unreasonableness, the Golden Rule, and the Future of DNA Databases," Harvard Law Review Forum, Vol. 127, No. 1, November 2013, pp. 39-48
  • "The Need for a Research Culture in the Forensic Sciences," UCLA Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 3, February 2011, pp. 725-779 (with J.L. Mnookin et al.)
  • "Naked Statistical Evidence," Yale Law Journal, Vol. 89, No. 3, January 1980, pp. 601-611
  • "The Laws of Probability and the Law of the Land," University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, Fall 1979, pp. 34-56