PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "There was a sense among local leaders Thursday that this overhaul of DFS provides a crucial opportunity to regain public trust in the city’s forensic evaluations." Officials and public advocates alike pointed to the forensics lab in Houston, which was once deemed the “worst crime laboratory in the country” but has since become a pioneer in the field. They said they hope to follow in those footsteps. “What is at stake is the integrity of scientific evidence in the District’s most serious cases,” Marerro said.""
STORY: "D.C. agencies to launch post-conviction reviews in light of crisis at Department of Forensic Sciences," by Reporter Emily Davies, published by The Washington Post on October 15, 2021.
SUB-HEADING: "The department lost its accreditation in May and recently came under fire for alleged policies in it's crime lab's quality-control system."
GIST: D.C. government agencies are preparing to launch sweeping post-conviction reviews after the city’s Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) lost its accreditation in May, agency leaders said at a public oversight roundtable this week.
The D.C. Office of the Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Public Defender’s Office in D.C. each committed to dedicating resources toward inspecting old criminal cases that involved evidence examined by DFS. No faulty convictions have surfaced as a result of errors at DFS, but local officials are bracing for what these reviews could uncover.
“In the event that this review finds that we have an individual who was wrongly convicted, we are talking about life-altering impact because of those mistakes,” D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the committee on the judiciary and public safety, said at the Thursday roundtable.
The commitment from these agencies is the latest fallout from a crisis at the city’s crime lab, which opened in 2011 as an independent agency responsible for analyzing evidence collected in criminal investigations and has periodically had problems with its work.
Since its establishment, DFS has come under fire for errors interpreting DNA analyses, misconduct and poor oversight of firearms analysts, and most recently, allegations that the agency systematically removed the names of analysts from documents in the crime lab’s quality-control system.
The agency has twice lost its accreditation and twice had its director step down after problems were revealed. It ceased all analysis of forensic evidence in May.
Representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District and the city’s office of the attorney general and public defender service said Thursday that they will determine the scope and process of their reviews based largely on the findings of an ongoing assessment of DFS.
The department hired an outside consulting firm, Virginia-based SNA International, to conduct an exhaustive assessment of its operations.
By mid-October, the firm had reviewed more than 17,000 documents, conducted 40 interviews and anonymously surveyed more than 200 DFS employees, according to Anthony Crispino, the department’s new interim director. Crispino said he would share the report with the public and that he expects it to be completed by the end of November.
“The prevailing desire by the men and women who serve at DFS is to have transparency, accountability, and trust in the critical work performed by our forensic units,” he said.
The D.C. Office of the Attorney General has created a new position to oversee a team focused on “conviction integrity review,” said Jose Marerro, assistant chief of the criminal section of the OAG public safety division.
That unit will look to the SNA report and its recommendations to provide a “road map” to determine the time-period and types of cases to investigate, he added.
In addition to the probe by SNA International, city officials asked Crispino about an Office of the Inspector General of D.C. investigation into DFS’s quality-management system, which was first reported by WTOP.
Specifically, Allen said at the oversight roundtable, the investigation pertains to an alleged policy that redacts the names of employees from documents that track their mistakes or issues in forensic analysis — making it difficult for attorneys to call on those analysts to testify about their errors.
Crispino said that policy is relatively common in crime labs across the country but that he looked forward to considering SNA’s findings and suggestions about how to address the issue.
Allen requested a full confidential briefing to learn more about what the agency knows about the allegations against its quality-management system.
“I can assure the public, chairman, that there is no imminent and there never was any imminent risk to health or public safety,” Crispino said after agreeing to the confidential briefing. “I can assure you of that.”
The Office of the Inspector General of D.C. did not return requests for comment on the reported investigation.
The Thursday oversight roundtable also revealed recent changes to the staff makeup at DFS. Crispino said he had made significant cuts to his firearms examination unit after realizing that it would take “at least a year” to address deeply rooted deficiencies and rebuild that team.
He also said he created new Chief Information Office and HR manager roles, which he hopes will help recruit top talent to an agency struggling with low morale and vacancies.
There was a sense among local leaders Thursday that this overhaul of DFS provides a crucial opportunity to regain public trust in the city’s forensic evaluations
Officials and public advocates alike pointed to the forensics lab in Houston, which was once deemed the “worst crime laboratory in the country” but has since become a pioneer in the field. They said they hope to follow in those footsteps.
“What is at stake is the integrity of scientific evidence in the District’s most serious cases,” Marerro said.""
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