|
Economically speaking, there couldn’t be a worse time to find out that the evidence used to convict criminal suspects needs re-testing, a task that has fallen to the Michigan State Police. In Detroit, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says her office has identified 147 cases of convicted and imprisoned people that will require re-testing of evidence as part of the investigation into the now-closed Detroit Police Dept. crime lab. If 147 cases sounds like a lot, you might be surprised to learn that it is just the tip of the iceberg. Questionable procedures using poor science techniques could jeopardize thousands of cases in Wayne County and tens of thousands more nationwide.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” Worthy told the Free Press recently. “I really feel baffled at how many people might be in jail because of botched evidence, or how many people aren’t in jail because of botched evidence,” said LaDarrell Howard, 40, of Harrison Township, who was acquitted on a second-degree murder charge last spring after Detroit police wrongly included a bullet from an unrelated suicide with evidence in Howard’s case.
Defense attorney David Steingold, who tries murder cases in Wayne County, says the scale of the problem with the crime lab problems is massive. “To a defense lawyer, the scientific evidence in court is the hardest evidence to contest in court, whether it’s a blood test in a drunk driving case or a ballistic test in a murder case,” he said. “You are at the mercy of a piece of paper.”
Michael Thomas, director of the State Police’s forensic science division, said he expects the state’s labs to handle at least 20,000 Detroit cases this year. That’s in addition to the 10,000 cases a year the State Police lab handles of its own cases and those of about 650 other police departments.
The disaster could translate into guilty people walking the streets, innocent people stuck behind bars, and law-enforcement agencies doing old work instead of investigating current crime. The Detroit lab wasn’t the only one in the country with problems, according to the independent National Research Council.
A review by West Virginia State Police found more than 100 convictions were in doubt because an employee had repeatedly falsified evidence. At least 10 people had convictions overturned. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed