The FBI will
review thousands of convictions in the largest study in its history to find out
if faulty lab work led to wrongful convictions, officials say.
The focus is on
work done by hair and fiber specialists at the FBI laboratory, which does
forensic work for local and state as well as national law enforcement agencies,
The Washington Post reported. The agency plans to review all cases dating back
to at least 1985.
"The Department
and the FBI are in the process of identifying historical cases for review where
a microscopic hair examination conducted by the FBI was among the evidence in a
case that resulted in a conviction," Nanda Chitre, a Justice Department
spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday. "We have dedicated considerable time
and resources to addressing these issues, with the goal of reaching final
determinations in the coming months."
The Innocence
Project, which uses DNA testing to help clear the wrongly convicted, and the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will help with the review,
Chitre said.
The Post
reported in April that the Justice Department knew of faulty work at the FBI lab
but had not reviewed cases in which the findings might have led to a wrongful
conviction or notified those convicted or their lawyers of possibly dubious
evidence. UPI
The review comes
as the National Academy of Sciences is urging the White House and Congress to
remove crime labs from police and prosecutors' control, or at least to
strengthen the science and standards underpinning the nation's forensic science
system. Washington Post Details of how
the new FBI review will be conducted remain unclear. The exact number of cases
that will be reviewed is unknown. The FBI is starting with more than 10,000
cases referred to all hair and fiber examiners. From those, the focus will be on
a smaller number of hair examinations that resulted in positive findings and a
conviction. oregonlive.com It also is
unclear whether the review will focus only on exaggerated testimony by FBI
examiners or also on scientifically unfounded statements made by others trained
by the FBI, or made by prosecutors. Also unclear is at what point government
officials will notify defense attorneys or the Innocence Project.
oregonlive.com In past reviews,
the department kept results secret and gave findings only to prosecutors, who
then determined whether to turn them over to the defense. Washington
Post
SM/HJ
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