CRITICAL COMMENT: NEW YORK STATE'S GLARING FAILURE TO SUPERVISE A MAJOR CRIME LAB: THE ATLANTIC'S TA-NEHISI COATES' POINT OF VIEW; A REAL GEM!

"BUT ON THURSDAY, POLICE OFFICIALS SAID THAT NONE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS HAD FOUND THAT MR. VEEDER'S WORK HAD CAST DOUBT ON ANY OF THEIR CONVICTIONS.
"WE ARE SATISFIED THAT THERE WERE NO WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS, NOR ANY MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE WHICH RESULTED FROM THESE IMPROPER PROCEDURES," MR. CORBITT SAID....."

TA-NEHISI COATES; THE ATLANTIC;

(WIKIPEDIA TELLS US THAT TA-NEHISI COATES (BORN 1975, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND) IS A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR FOR THE ATLANTIC AND BLOGS ON ITS WEBSITE. (HE PRONOUNCES HIS GIVEN NAME /ˌTA-NɘˈHASI/.) COATES HAS WORKED FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER, AND TIME. HE HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY, O, AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS.)

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In his recent report into a terribly flawed forensic laboratory, the Victoria (Australia) Ombudsman said "Some witnesses expressed a view that improvements were not required as there should be a high level of trust in the activities undertaken by the forensic officers." Fortunately the Ombudsman shot down this vacuous, if not dangerous notion quickly, saying "Trust or professionalism is not the issue in my view. Rather it is a matter of ensuring accountability and appropriate procedures are adhered to. It is also to ensure that the courts and the victorian community can have confidence in the integrity of the processes used for the management of drug exhibits at the Victoria Police Forensic Services centre." I also enjoyed the manner in which Ta-Nehisi Coates, a contributing editor to the Atlantic, disposed of the "trust us" gambit in a post published on December 21, 2009.

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"The New York State Police's supervision of a major crime laboratory was so poor that it overlooked evidence of pervasively shoddy forensics work, allowing an analyst to go undetected for 15 years as he falsified test results and compromised nearly one-third of his cases, an investigation by the state's inspector general has found," the post began.

"The analyst's training was so substandard that at one point last year, investigators discovered he could not properly operate a microscope essential to performing his job, the report released on Thursday said," it continued.

"Prosecutors aren't worried:

But on Thursday, police officials said that none of the district attorneys had found that Mr. Veeder's work had cast doubt on any of their convictions.

"We are satisfied that there were no wrongful convictions, nor any miscarriages of justice which resulted from these improper procedures," Mr. Corbitt said, stating a viewpoint also shared by Mr. Fisch.

Right. Because if there were, you'd come out and tell us. I really wish I could believe you."

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/12/faking_evidence.php

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;