Bulletin: Santae Tribble; Flawed FBI hair match testimony: Momentous decision: Judge awards $13 million to this exonerated man: Link to excellent Washington Post story by Spencer Hsu; "The D.C. Public Defender Service uncovered a pattern in which prosecutors exaggerated claims about the reliability of forensic hair testing. The city government has been ordered to pay $39 million in damages over the past year. The cases led to a federal review and a disclosure by the Justice Department that FBI examiners overstated testimony in nearly all criminal cases involving forensic hair evidence for two decades before 2000. Tribble was convicted in 1980. At his trial, prosecutors suggested that it would be a "1 in 10 million" coincidence if hairs found in a stocking near the crime scene were not Tribble's. The person who killed the taxi driver reportedly had worn a stocking mask."

"A judge has awarded $13.2 million to a man who was convicted of murder in Washington and spent 28 years in prison based on forensic hair analysis that was later discredited. D.C. Superior Court Judge John Mott awarded the money on Friday to 55-year-old Santae Tribble, who was convicted in the 1978 slaying of a taxi driver, The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/zbxma5b) reported. Trimble was exonerated in 2012 and released after DNA analysis revealed that hairs found near the scene of the crime were not his. Tribble is the third District of Columbia man who has received a multimillion-dollar judgment in his favor after being wrongly convicted based on hair analysis. The D.C. Public Defender Service uncovered a pattern in which prosecutors exaggerated claims about the reliability of forensic hair testing. The city government has been ordered to pay $39 million in damages over the past year. The cases led to a federal review and a disclosure by the Justice Department that FBI examiners overstated testimony in nearly all criminal cases involving forensic hair evidence for two decades before 2000. Tribble was convicted in 1980. At his trial, prosecutors suggested that it would be a "1 in 10 million" coincidence if hairs found in a stocking near the crime scene were not Tribble's. The person who killed the taxi driver reportedly had worn a stocking mask."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/df1a2b72defc4f05b871bbb3a8c9185c/judge-awards-13-million-exonerated-dc-man