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reviewing the role of outdated forensics in Willingham’s conviction.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