STORY: "The Crisis in America’s Crime Labs," by reporter Michelle Malkin published by The National Review on July 12, 2017. (Michelle Malkin is a blogger, conservative syndicated columnist, and an author.)
GIST: "They are responsible for countless wrongful prosecutions and
convictions.
Junk science endangers lives. Forensic junk science in the hands of
overzealous prosecutors, ignorant police detectives, and reckless
experts threatens liberty.
There is a crisis in America’s government-run crime labs — and it’s not
just the result of a few rogue operators. The problem is long-festering
and systemic.
In April, Massachusetts state crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan made
national headlines after investigations and lawsuits over her misconduct
prompted the state’s Supreme Judicial Court to order the largest
dismissal of criminal convictions in U.S. history.
Prosecutors were forced to dismiss a stunning 21,000-plus drug cases
after Dookhan admitted to forging signatures, misleading investigators,
and purposely contaminating drug samples en masse over nearly a decade.
Dookhan pleaded guilty to dozens of charges of obstruction of justice,
perjury, and tampering with evidence. Hundreds of defendants have had
their convictions tossed on appeal.
Despite a district judge concluding that her actions were “nothing short
of catastrophic,” Dookhan served a measly three years in prison before
being released last spring.
Another Massachusetts state crime lab worker, Sonja Farak, abused her
position to pilfer and ingest the drugs she was supposed to be testing
over an eight-year period. Instead of cleaning up, two former assistant
attorney generals covered up for Farak and misled a judge who last month
dismissed several of the cases tainted by the narcotics-addicted lab
worker. Upwards of 10,000 prosecutions may eventually be overturned.
The fraudster’s fate? Crackhead and meth junkie Farak received a mere
18-month jail sentence for snorting the evidence, plus five years’
probation. The two assistant AGs left their jobs for higher-paying
positions in government.
––
Law journals and scientific publications are filled with similar horror
stories that have spread from the New York City medical examiner’s
office and Nassau County, N.Y.’s police department forensic evidence
bureau to the crime labs of West Virginia, Harris County, Texas, North
Carolina and jurisdictions in nearly 20 other states.
It’s the wrongfully prosecuted and convicted who suffer the heaviest
deprivations — and taxpayers who must foot the astronomical bill for all
the costs and damages incurred by crime lab corruptocrats and their
enablers.
As I’ve been chronicling in my newspaper columns and CRTV.com
investigative reports, many state crime labs and police departments are
particularly ill-equipped and inadequately trained to interpret DNA
evidence, especially “touch” or “trace” DNA — minute amounts of DNA of
unknown origin often transferred through incidental contact — which has
resulted in monstrous miscarriages of justice against innocent people.
The aura of infallibility conferred on crime lab analysts by CSI-style
TV shows exacerbates the problem when juries place undue weight on
indeterminate DNA evidence of little to no probative value. Just last
week, North Carolina’s Mark Carver, who was convicted of murdering a
college student based on dubious touch DNA that was likely the result of
investigators’ contamination, won a new court date for a hearing that
may set him free.
Many state crime labs and police departments are particularly
ill-equipped and inadequately trained to interpret DNA evidence.
Costly errors and gross misconduct will continue as long as politicized
prosecutors operate with a “win at all costs” agenda and stubbornly
refuse to admit their failures. Dark history seems to repeating itself
at the Oklahoma City Police Department, home of the late forensic faker
Joyce Gilchrist. Known as “Black Magic,” Gilchrist conjured mountains of
phony DNA evidence out of whole cloth in collaboration with an
out-of-control district attorney over two ruinous decades.
Gilchrist, whose tainted testimony sent eleven inmates to their deaths,
passed away two years ago unpunished and unrepentant.
Now, nearly a quarter-century after Gilchrist’s misconduct was first
exposed, Oklahoma City has been rocked by secret hearings held two weeks
ago in the case of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel
Holtzclaw. He was convicted in 2015 on multiple sexual assaults after
being railroaded by incompetent and biased police detectives and a DA’s
office more concerned about appeasing the social justice mob than
seeking the truth.
My investigation of Holtzclaw’s case helped publicize the flawed, sloppy
testimony by OCPD crime lab analyst Elaine Taylor and assistant
district attorney Gayland Gieger, who misled jurors with false
assertions about trace skin cell DNA tied to one accuser found on
Holtzclaw’s pants — the only indirect forensic evidence in the case. One
of the key attendees at the secret hearings last month was Taylor’s
OCPD crime lab supervisor, Campbell Ruddock.
Taylor and Gieger failed to fully inform the jury of unknown male DNA
found on Holtzclaw’s pants, as well as DNA mixtures from multiple
unknown female and male contributors, which clearly supported the
hypothesis of innocent, nonsexual DNA indirect transfer. But Gieger
baselessly claimed the DNA came from vaginal fluid (when Taylor
conducted no such confirmatory tests for body fluids nor used an
alternate light source). Gieger recklessly yoked the phony DNA “smoking
gun” in one accuser’s case to all of the accusers’ allegations. At least
two jurors publicly stated after trial that the shoddy DNA evidence
persuaded them of Holtzclaw’s collective guilt.
Secrecy about the crime lab crisis is a toxic recipe for more wrongful
convictions. The solution lies in greater transparency, external
scrutiny, stiffer criminal penalties and real financial consequences for
forensic fraudsters and fakers. It’s time to incentivize more
whistleblowers, instead of more destructive witch hunts."
The entire story can be found at:
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
