BACKGROUND; From link below: "13 wrongful convictions all tied to one forensic analyst. The analyst – Mary Jane Burton – was hailed as a hero for saving the DNA evidence that led to the exonerations. But when reporter Tessa Kramer starts investigating, she meets a former lab trainee with a very different – and much darker – story to tell. Over the course of 12 episodes, Kramer unravels this mystery, searching for proof of explosive allegations against Burton and a possible cover-up at one of the nation’s leading crime labs An original podcast from VPM and Story Mechanics, future seasons of Admissible will investigate the role of evidence in our legal system."
ACCESS PODCAST AT:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/admissible-shreds-of-evidence/id1668887025
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STORY: "Crime Commission considers how to review more cases connected to DNA review," by Reporter Dave Cantor, published by WVTF (Virginia Public Radio) on December 8, 2025. (Dave Cantor is an award-winning reporter whose work has been featured on NPR, and in The New York Times and DownBeat magazine, where he was an editor.)
GIST: "The Virginia State Crime Commission will determine how and when to notify the families of eight individuals executed by the Commonwealth whose trials involved Mary Jane Burton, the late state forensic scientist who allegedly mishandled evidence and offered inaccurate court testimony.
Del. Charniele Herring, the crime commission’s Democratic chairperson, said she’d brought up the issue previously.
“This is something that I raised at another body's meeting, that the families need notification,” Herring said during a Tuesday commission meeting. “We need to decide … what we can do for those families, because they're part of this project, this sort of study and investigation. They need to be notified as well.”
Sen. Scott Surovell, the commission’s Democratic vice chairperson, added that the families “deserve some answers.”
Herring also mentioned notifying the families of 408 deceased people whose cases were tied to Burton’s work.
State panels have received regular updates on Burton’s work following 2024 legislationthat set up the case review process, which seeks to determine how many people were potentially affected by the late serologist’s work. The inquiry into possible problems around Burton’s conduct came to light through the reporting of journalist Tessa Kramerin 2023.
A bill passed during the 2025 General Assembly session directed the crime commission to establish a panel that would explore convictions Burton was involved with that were identified by staff. It also directed the prioritization of cases where people remain incarcerated by the state. Individuals in state custody whose convictions were in some way connected to Burton previously were notified of the review.
Herring appointed Del. Patrick Hope and Sen. Mark Peake — both members of the commission — to serve on a sub-committee that will select the review panel. They’re expected to meet in December to formalize the application process for the group and are expected to begin interviews in spring 2026.
The panel, which doesn’t have the authority to determine innocence, will consist of seven members — including a retired circuit court judge, a practicing criminal defense attorney, a representative of the Attorney General’s office and the executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, among others.
Christina Barnes Arrington — a senior methodologist with the commission — said staff had pinpointed 314 cases to be individually reviewed by the panel when it’s established, though ”additional cases will likely be identified as the case file review is finalized.”
Arrington also updated the commission on progress that’s been made.
“When we last presented to you in October of 2024, we had reviewed around 400 cases or around 5% of Ms. Burton's work,” she said. “Now, we are pleased to report we've completed reviewing 85% of all known cases worked by Ms. Burton.”
Arrington added that about 1,200 of more than 7,500 cases that Burton was involved between 1973 and 1988 remain to be reviewed.
“I imagine this will be a pretty lengthy process,” Kristen J. Howard, executive director of the commission, said during the meeting.
In an email, Hope, who did not attend the commission’s most recent meeting, said the review likely wouldn’t be concluded by the end of Fiscal Year 2026 and that additional funding wouldn’t be necessary.
The review was allocated about $3.6 million over two years as part of the state’s 2024 budget. In the past, some post-conviction DNA testing conducted by Virginia has been supported through federal grants."
The entire story can be read at:
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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