STORY: "DNA backlog at Austin police crime lab could slow massive case review." by reporter Jazmine Ulloa, published by The American-Statesman on May 2, 2016.
GIST: "Prosecutors across Texas are re-evaluating hundreds of cases affected by new DNA protocols. The backlog of cases awaiting DNA analysis at the Austin police crime lab is the biggest in five years..........FBI officials last year notified crime labs across the country that they were using outdated methods to examine samples containing genetic material from multiple people — methods that often led expert witnesses to greatly overstate the reliability of that evidence in court. Prosecutors in Travis County have since joined a massive statewide effort to re-evaluate cases affected by the miscalculations. But the Austin Police Department’s crime lab, which will have to recalculate statistics on about half of the 1,297 Travis County cases identified so far, is still validating new software and updating its protocols. Meanwhile, the lab’s backlog of cases awaiting DNA analysis has risen to about 1,300, the most in the past five years..........The use of outdated protocols to interpret test results means an expert witness might have told jurors that the chances are 1 in more than a billion that the genetic material in question belonged to someone other than the defendant, when those odds are more like 1 in 100. Forensic scientists have said the DNA issues could have affected tens of thousands of cases nationwide dating back to 1999. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which controls only eight crime labs in the state, counted about 25,000 cases that contained mixed DNA results. Counties and police departments with their own labs counted hundreds more..........But exactly how many have been affected and must be recalculated is still being determined. In Texas, which has become a national leader in efforts to address the concerns, prosecutors and criminal justice leaders are working to prioritize the test results of those in which DNA was a linchpin piece of evidence in a guilty plea or jury conviction. The Texas Forensic Science Commission, which sets standards for physical evidence in state courts, and the Harris County public defender’s office, backed by a $400,000 state grant, are helping prosecutors across the state alert defendants and review case files, including exhibits, affidavits and transcripts. Signs about the issues have been posted in multiple languages at jails and state prisons since December and provide a Harris County post office box to which inmates may write to request that their cases be re-evaluated. Some jurisdictions, such as Travis County, are undertaking the review and notifying inmates on their own. So far, the requests for recalculations have been low. DPS has been asked to review only 100 cases from counties statewide. The Austin police crime lab has received requests for fewer than 100 cases. But those numbers are expected to grow. Travis County prosecutors have mailed out letters to 784 defendants of the nearly 1,300 who could have been affected, including six death row inmates."
The entire story can be found at:
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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.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
