"Elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony," published by CBS News in April 20, 2015.
GIST: "The FBI is notifying hundreds of defendants in 46 states that their convictions involved flawed expert testimony. It now admits that nearly every examiner in an elite forensic unit overstated hair matches that favored prosecutors.This is one of the country's largest-ever forensic scandals and includes dozens of death row convictions, reports CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman. Cleveland Wright spent 28 years -- almost half his life behind bars -- serving time for a 1978 murder. His conviction, it now turns out, was based on a false FBI hair analysis. "I didn't know anything about forensics. I didn't know too much about law when I got arrested and locked up, but I just knew I was innocent," Wright said. New data shows he is not alone. The Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers found from the 1970s through 1999, in 268 cases where FBI hair analysis led to a conviction, 257, or 96 percent, had errors in analysis. Eighteen of those defendants were living on death row -- 12 had been executed. "Finding a suspect's hair on a victim, or vice versa, finding a victim's hair on a suspect, that's the kind of linkage that prosecutors love," forensics expert Larry Kobilinsky said. He said microscopic hair analysis was thought of as cutting edge science, even though there was no way to scientifically identify a match before DNA testing. Still, he said, if an FBI agent testifies, juries listen. "There's a certain aura about FBI agents. They are very sharp, and very trustworthy; it doesn't mean their experimentation was done properly," Kobilinsky said.......... Errors do not mean there was no evidence of guilt, but defendants may have grounds for appeal. The FBI released a statement Sunday saying they "are committed to ensuring that affected defendants are notified of past errors... and will continue to do so until all of the cases are addressed."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-hair-analysis-errors-led-to-convictions-new-report-finds/
See National Post story: "The admissions mark a watershed in one of the country’s largest forensic scandals, highlighting the failure of the U.S. courts for decades to keep bogus scientific information from juries, legal analysts said. The question now, they said, is how state authorities and the courts will respond to findings that confirm long-suspected problems with subjective, pattern-based forensic techniques — like hair and bite-mark comparisons — that have contributed to wrongful convictions in more than one-quarter of 329 DNA-exoneration cases since 1989."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
