From the Wrongful Convictions Blog: International Innocence Round-up

Senior forensic scientists in New South Wales, Australia, are warning that

drastic cuts to the forensic science workforce

in the cash-strapped state will threaten justice.

 

A very worrying report into psychological experts in family court cases in England and Wales reveals that

up to 20% are not qualified

, a third had no experience in conducting mental health assessments and 90% were no longer in practice.

 

Jason Puracal, a Washington native who moved to Nicaragua in 2002 to volunteer with the Peace Corps, has been

sentenced to 22 years in prison

on drug charges for which there is nearly no evidence.

 

Two wrongfully convicted men released in South Africa last year after 19 years in prison are now being

required to wear electronic monitoring devices

.

 

A Manchester

rape case has collapsed

after LGC, a private forensics provider for England and Wales, admitted that the DNA evidence it was supposed to be analyzing had become ‘too contaminated’ to be reliable.

 

Syed Maqbool Shah

spent 14 years in an Indian prison

, charged with participation in a bombing, before finally being acquitted of all charges.

 

Five men in England have

had their convictions overturned in the English Court of Appeals

for the 2002 murder of Kevin Nunes after a re-investigation of the case by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.