National Post-Conviction Case Review to Examine Forensic Flaws

The FBI has launched its largest post-conviction review ever to determine if hair and fiber analysts presented flawed or exaggerated forensic results in criminal convictions. The review, a joint effort of the FBI and the Justice Department, comes just months after The Washington Post reported that Justice Department officials had known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to wrongful convictions but had not performed a thorough review of the cases. Many prisoners who were affected by the flaws were never notified by prosecutors, according to The Washington Post.

The review, which will be aided by the Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, will target hair examinations that resulted in positive findings and a conviction. The Washington Post reports:

The 2009 National Academy of Sciences report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, was critical of the use of hair microscopy because it hasn’t been scientifically verified and there are no uniform standards for what constitutes a match. The report calls for independent crime labs, separated from police and prosecutors’ control, and to strengthen the science and standards underpinning the nation’s forensic science system. 

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full article

.

Read about a

DNA exoneration case

that involved exaggerated testimony from an FBI hair and fiber analyst. 

Read the

National Academy of Sciences report

calling for widespread reform of the forensic sciences.