The National Academy of Sciences published Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward in 2009, a landmark report commissioned by the US Congress that documented serious deficiencies in many forensic evidence disciplines used in American courts. The report found that — with the exception of nuclear DNA analysis — no forensic discipline had been rigorously validated, and that many widely used techniques, including bite mark analysis, hair comparison, and toolmark evidence, lacked scientific foundation. It initiated significant reform debates in forensic practice.

The 2009 NAS report fundamentally destabilised the cultural authority of forensic evidence in American courts and popular understanding — a shift with significant literary reverberations. Crime writers, documentary journalists, and legal writers rapidly incorporated the report's findings into narratives questioning the reliability of expert evidence. The report also energised the wrongful conviction movement and contributed to a body of writing reconsidering past convictions, from true crime journalism to literary essays on justice and science.