HOUSTON CHRONICLE SAYS ATTEMPTS TO SAVE MONEY ON FORENSICS LEAVE INNOCENT PERSONS LANGUISHING IN OVERCROWDED JAILS;

"IN HOUSTON, WE'RE NOW PAYING A HIGH COST FOR TRYING TOO HARD TO SAVE MONEY ON FORENSICS: SO FAR, CITY COUNCIL HAS ALLOCATED MORE THAN $7 MILLION FOR CONTRACTORS TO ATTACK OUR VARIOUS BACKLOGS. BUT WORSE, THE POLICE DEPARTMENT'S SLOW, OFTEN SHODDY LAB WORK HAS MADE US ALL LESS SAFE. DANGEROUS GUNS — AND THE PEOPLE WHO SHOOT THEM — STAY ON THE STREET. RAPISTS AREN'T APPREHENDED. AND THE INNOCENT CAN LANGUISH, STUCK IN OUR OVERCROWDED JAILS."

EDITORIAL: THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE;

(WIKIPEDIA NOTES THAT THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE IS THE LARGEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN TEXAS);

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BACKGROUND: The Houston Chronicle recently reported that although fingerprinting has been viewed by the public as a practically infallible crime-fighting tool with accuracy rates approaching 100 percent for years, its problems are not unique - and incorrect results at labs across the nation produce doubts about a discipline once thought of as an exact science. The paper continues to do an excellent job in reporting the effect that the crisis is crime labs throughout America is having on its criminal justice system - and the need for an overhaul. Nor is America unique. This Blog has reported major problems with crime labs elsewhere in the world - most recently Australia. The seriously flawed Houston crime lab must be viewed in the overall context of the Texas criminal justice system which is a "perfect storm for wrongful convictions and executions. As reporter Brandi Grissom recently pointed out in a recent in-depth Texas Tribune story on the pending execution of Hank Skinner: "Skinner’s execution date approaches as Texas faces renewed scrutiny of its famously busy death row and the science used to convict the accused. Since 1973, just 11 death row inmates have been exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, while more than 440 have been put to death. The New Yorker touched off a national debate last year about how many of those killed might have been innocent by posthumously profiling Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 after a jury convicted him of killing his three young children by arson in 1991. Before Willingham was executed, according to the story, the state ignored expert reports contending that the fire may have been accidental and calling the method used to prove that it was arson "junk science." A Texas Observer story earlier this month revealed that a psychologist the state has relied on to test the mental capacity of more than a dozen death row inmates used faulty methods to boost IQ scores so the men could meet the legal standard for the death penalty. And in Dallas County, maverick District Attorney Craig Watkins has launched a Conviction Integrity Unit that has reviewed more than 400 cases in which DNA from crime scenes was still available to be tested and has discovered at least 15 wrongful convictions."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You've got to be kidding, we thought," the editorial begins, under the heading "Cops shouldn't run Houston crime lab."

"The Houston Police Department's crime lab has a backlog of more than 300 firearms forensics cases? On top of its backlogs of untested rape kits and unchecked fingerprints? and after years of cleaning up crummy work that led to at least four wrongful convictions?," it continues.

"At this point, it ought to be news if HPD's evidence analysts do something well.

And it ought to be long past obvious that our police shouldn't be managing a forensics lab. As the National Academy of Sciences reported last year, this isn't just HPD's problem: Cop culture naturally clashes with scientist culture — and when a forensics unit is inside a police department, almost inevitably, cop culture wins. When the budget is tight, rather than cutting uniforms on the street, departments slash lab budgets below the bare minimum. They don't hire enough techs, or they hire low-paid, badly trained ones. Backlogs and shoddy work become almost inevitable.

In Houston, we're now paying a high cost for trying too hard to save money on forensics: So far, City Council has allocated more than $7 million for contractors to attack our various backlogs.

But worse, the police department's slow, often shoddy lab work has made us all less safe. Dangerous guns — and the people who shoot them — stay on the street. Rapists aren't apprehended. And the innocent can languish, stuck in our overcrowded jails.

So we ask yet again: Isn't it time for a regional forensics lab, one that works with all our area's law enforcement agencies but remains its own independent entity?

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos has long called for precisely that kind of lab. Let's use the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, she suggests. It's independent of any law enforcement agency. It already serves as the county's clearinghouse for forensic analysis. And it could be up and running fast.

We hope that Houston City Council takes note — and that it manages to make that necessary change before yet another forensics scandal seizes the headlines."

The editorial can be found at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6844914.html

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;