PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The main character is a Teacher of the Year caught up in the process. The book is fact-based fiction. But the idea that DNA evidence can be subject to mishandling, and that analysis and results can be subject to someone’s laziness, incompetence, deceit, or overworked schedule, is distressing to say the least. Sadly, it actually happens in the real world."
ARTICLE: "What can happen when DNA evidence is mishandled," by lawyer Frank Abrams, published by The South Carolina Daily Gazette on August 7, 2025,, discussing his book 'The Cockfight' which he describes as, "a book about injustice, redemption, and a Teacher of the Year caught in an unfair system — a broken system where DNA evidence is mishandled by lab workers, results are either faked or guessed at, and worse: sometimes evidence is destroyed", something which should be very familiar to the readers of this Blog. Oh yes, in this article, he refers to, "On Jan. 23 of this year, a Colorado crime lab DNA analyst was charged with dozens of counts of forgery on January 23 of this years and is accused of mishandling and tampering with evidence over 15 years, sending more than 1,000 cases into question. Guess who!
FRANK ABRAMS BIO: "Frank Abrams is a criminal defense attorney in both North Carolina and Florida. He has practiced federal and state criminal law during his entire 38-year career. He has appeared on public radio and Court TV. He is also an inventor, having a patent on a new type of banjo, and has been in the news for finding a tintype picture of Billy The Kid along with Pat Garrett, the man who killed him.
IMAGE: "The cover of Frank Abrams' book, "The Cockfight," features a fighting rooster."
GIST: “The Cockfight” is a book about injustice, redemption, and a Teacher of the Year caught in an unfair system — a broken system where DNA evidence is mishandled by lab workers, results are either faked or guessed at, and worse: sometimes evidence is destroyed.
The book’s title may lead some to envision a connection to the University of South Carolina mascot. However, while there are cockfights in the book — which, by the way, are still misdemeanors in South Carolina — the subject matter has more to do with an individual caught in an unfair system where the evidence against him is flawed.
It cuts in both directions.
A few years back, I learned that a crime lab in Louisville, Kentucky, was mishandling DNA evidence.
And there is a direct connection to South Carolina. On May 14, 2020, Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Statewide Sexual Assault Kit Tracking Law (H3309).
This law aims to ensure law enforcement, crime labs and medical facilities keep track of evidence, such as rape kits, and “empower survivors with information, assist law enforcement with investigations and crime prevention, create transparency, and foster public trust.”
South Carolinians pushing for that law included the survivor of a horrific rape and beating in Kentucky, who learned nearly two decades later the evidence in her case had long been destroyed.
It was destroyed at the same Kentucky lab that instilled my writing of the book.
Failure to properly store, handle or analyze evidence can result in guilty people going free, as well as innocent people being wrongfully charged.
As a criminal defense attorney in federal and state matters for 38 years, I envisioned what could go wrong when a crime lab mishandles DNA evidence.
The main character is a Teacher of the Year caught up in the process. The book is fact-based fiction. But the idea that DNA evidence can be subject to mishandling, and that analysis and results can be subject to someone’s laziness, incompetence, deceit, or overworked schedule, is distressing to say the least.
Sadly, it actually happens in the real world.
On Jan. 23 of this year, a Colorado crime lab DNA analyst was charged with dozens of counts of forgery. She’s accused of mishandling and tampering with evidence over 15 years, sending more than 1,000 cases into question.
In “The Cockfight,” the main character loses everything and is sent to various federal prisons, including the one in rural Bennettsville.
The main character in the book, “Teach,” explains the circumstances surrounding his case, and the various facilities he was placed in. The book labels it as “social welfare at the expense of human bondage.”
What’s worse is that we continue to punish offenders even after they are released.
With felony records, there is no real way that they will ever obtain meaningful work or be allowed to become productive members of society.
“The Cockfight” is the story of the teacher’s fight to clear his name. It is a book about injustice and redemption.
It compares how we treat people caught in the system to cockfights.
We make them mean and angry toward each other, and no one wins — not the victims of crime nor those caught in the broken system.
It was written to illustrate what can happen when things go wrong, and it is my hope that the message in the book leads to both a change in attitude and in action.
Further, I hope those who are victims of criminal acts will be comforted with knowing that the perpetrators will be brought to justice and that innocent people will be protected from a flawed system."
The entire article can be read at:
https://www.aol.com/happen-dna-evidence-mishandled-160744073.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html 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.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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