Friday Roundup: Forensics and Interrogations

08.20.10

A state review of the arson science behind the Texas execution of Cameron Todd Willingham continues to draw headlines in Texas. The Austin Chronicle

reported this week

on

a letter from former Texas Forensic Science Commission chairman Sam Bassett

urging the commission to conduct its analysis of the case in public. The Innocence Project also

sent a letter to the commission today

reviewing the role of outdated forensics in Willingham’s conviction.

Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Vanessa Potkin spoke with CBS News yesterday about

troubles at the North Carolina crime lab

. A recent review of the lab found that analysts falsely reported blood evidence in dozens of cases, including three that ended in executions.

Marie Claire’s current issue reports on

untested rape kits

and the dangers of perpetrators not being apprehended as a result.

A California man who was accused of raping a fellow hospital patient in June was

cleared by DNA evidence yesterday

.

An attorney defending a Pennsylvania man who was convicted of a double homicide in 1986 said that trial exhibits assumed missing

show that his client was wrongly convicted

.

A Michigan bill that would

require police to record interrogations

of suspects in serious felony cases was passed by the House on July 1 but still needs approval from the Senate.

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