STORY: "Proposal could hide forensic failures from public" by reporter Chuck Goudie and Ann Pistone, published by ABC7 Chicago on June 1, 2016.
GIST: "Nine months after the I-Team uncovered a pattern of forensic
failures in the Illinois State Police crime lab, the General Assembly
has passed a proposal that could keep such information from the public. The
I-Team found a culture of law and disorder at state police crime labs
last fall. We obtained internal audits and reports that revealed blood
and urine testing errors and bad testing methods that jeopardized
criminal cases. Now, legislation headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner would allow
state police officials to make up their own rules and keep such
information from defendants and the public. "It's a sheep in wolves clothing," said Wheaton defense attorney Don Ramsell. Ramsell regularly subpoenas test results and data from the crime lab when he defends motorists charged with drunken driving. Under
a proposal passed by the Illinois House on Tuesday, Ramsell says state
police will be able to withhold some of the most crucial crime lab
information. Including, he says, the kinds of mistakes uncovered by the
I-Team last year. These mistakes included: test samples switched, names
that didn't match, wrongly run vials of evidence, general inaccuracies,
incorrect methods and destruction of evidence. "It's an attempt
by the Illinois state police crime lab to try to limit the amount of
information they have to turn over to the defense. This way they can
hide whatever mistakes errors or method problems that you and the I-Team
discovered last year," said Ramsell. The forensic failures
discovered by the I-Team last fall appeared to put criminal cases in
jeopardy and raised the possibility that charges and convictions would
have to be thrown out due to faulty lab tests. But the
legislation headed to the governor's desk would allow state crime lab
officials to insulate themselves from future failures. Ramsell says they will do this by keeping the information under wraps. "The
purpose of the law is to prevent the defense attorneys from getting any
of the information we have been able to get in the past. They are going
to try to set up rules so the mistakes and errors don't become the
types of information they have to turn over any more," said Ramsell."
The entire story can be found at:
http://abc7chicago.com/news/new-law-could-hide-forensic-failures-from-public/1367365/The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
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.
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;
