Bulletin: Massachusetts: Major Development: George Perrot: "Behind bars for 30 years - after being arrested when he was 17-years-old - he has won a new trial over flawed FBI testimony. " Perrot was convicted with the help of the FBI's analysis of a hair found in the victim's bedroom. The FBI used a microscope to compare that hair to one taken from Perrot, and found they were essentially the same, helping convince the jury that Perrot was at the crime scene. But microscopic hair analysis has since been found to be far from exact. An FBI-led audit of cases where their analysts wrote reports or testified has found hundreds of examples where they overstated what the science of hair microscopy could show. Perrot's case was one of them, and his legal team has now convinced a judge that the testimony about the hair in his case should lead to a new trial."...""It is a horrific crime," Mayer said. "It is also horrific to think about being sent to jail as a teenager and spending the rest of your life in jail for a horrific crime that you did not commit." WCVB;

"A judge ordered a new trial Tuesday for a man serving a life sentence for raping an elderly Springfield woman, citing the same kind of flawed FBI forensics testimony that has come under scrutiny across the country and has been used to convict others since cleared by modern DNA testing. George Perrot was arrested when he was 17 years old and has spent almost all of the past 30 years behind bars for the 1985 crime.........Perrot was convicted with the help of the FBI's analysis of a hair found in the victim's bedroom. The FBI used a microscope to compare that hair to one taken from Perrot, and found they were essentially the same, helping convince the jury that Perrot was at the crime scene. But microscopic hair analysis has since been found to be far from exact. An FBI-led audit of cases where their analysts wrote reports or testified has found hundreds of examples where they overstated what the science of hair microscopy could show. Perrot's case was one of them, and his legal team has now convinced a judge that the testimony about the hair in his case should lead to a new trial. In a 79-page decision released today, Superior Court Judge Robert Kane wrote that "justice may not have been done" because hair evidence was used to help place Perrot at the crime scene, "It is well understood now that hair analysis can only tell you so much," said Kirsten Mayer of Ropes and Gray, part of Perrot's legal team. "When Mr. Perrot was convicted, the FBI expert who testified at his trial overstated what the limits of science are now understood to be.".........Judge Kane, in his decision, agreed the testimony about the hair analysis was a significant part of the prosecutor's case.

"It is a horrific crime," Mayer said. "It is also horrific to think about being sent to jail as a teenager and spending the rest of your life in jail for a horrific crime that you did not commit."
http://www.wcvb.com/news/behind-bars-for-30-years-man-wins-new-trial-over-flawed-fbi-testimony/37653430