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In The News

2016-04-27 | Researchers ‘Unpick’ the Flawed FBI Hair Evidence
Half a dozen witnesses testified that Santae Tribble was sleeping at his mother’s home in Maryland the day a 63-year-old cab driver was shot and killed in Washington D.C. in 1978. Nevertheless, two years later, an FBI expert testified that Tribble’s hair matched hair found at the scene “in all microscopic characteristics,” according to an Innocence Project report. The prosecution emphasized the “one chance in ten million” statistic that the hair did not come from the accused.

2016-04-25 | DNA-Mixture Analysis Exonerates Wrongly Convicted Man in Indiana
A man who served 24 years in prison for a rape conviction was exonerated and released today – the first of its kind based on the latest DNA-mixture analysis methods.

2016-04-19 | Why it’s so hard to keep bad forensics out of the courtroom
“An innocent person was convicted of a heinous crime he did not commit,” Kaufman wrote. “Science helped convict him. Science exonerated him.” DNA testing cleared Morin, but Kaufman’s inquiry into what went wrong poked giant holes in the reliability of the hair and fibre comparison evidence that was the basis of the jury’s guilty finding. Kaufman set his sights squarely on flawed forensic science, and the system that propped it up. His goal: to prevent a similar mistake from happening again.

2016-04-14 | DNA Exonerates Man Convicted on Bite-Mark Evidence, 33 Years Later
Harward was locked up in 1983, after being convicted of the four criminal counts. Harward had been a sailor on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson at the time. Even though he was 26 and had a moustache (an eyewitness description pegged the killer as 19 or 20 and clean-shaven), he was convicted based on bite marks on the surviving woman’s legs. Two forensic odontologists told the jury the marks conclusively came from Harward.

2016-04-07 | Lawmakers set aside more money for new crime lab
Right now there is $2.1 million set aside for planning and design. We're told they'll need over 30 millions dollars to build the facility. It's projected to be finished in early 2019.

2016-03-30 | Lifting Impossible Prints
We believed that the best HDR image met AFIS standards and on November 6, 2014 we submitted the laser-HDR images to NOVARIS. On the same day, we received notification that the ridges provided a conclusive match with a print from Aaron Hijjnalike Thomas, sometimes referred to as the “East Coast Rapist.” He was already serving three life terms, plus 80 years, for a multiple rape conviction in Prince William County, Virginia and had been further sentenced in March 2013 to two additional life terms for other rapes in Loudoun County, Virginia. Based on this fact, the prosecutor, in consultation with the victim, decided not to pursue the case further. Most importantly, however, Detective Hinson was able to provide closure for the victim in this case with the knowledge that her perpetrator was incarcerated with zero possibility of parole release.

2016-03-29 | DOJ: Review of FBI Evidence to Cover All Pattern-Based Disciplines
Similar overstatements—discovered last year in testimony regarding microscopic hair comparisons dating back decades—may have “crept” into other disciplines, Yates said. Disciplines like fingerprint examinations, ballistic measurements and fiber analysis. “The probative value of the evidence wasn’t always communicated,” Yates said, and that lack of communication may have led to wrongful convictions. The cases involve 46 states and include 32 defendants that were sentenced to death, according to reports.

2016-03-28 | Houston, Harris County officials renew calls to merge crime labs
Merging Houston's and Harris County's crime labs, an idea that was rejected several years ago by the city's mayor when forensic work was shifted from the police department to a new independent agency, is getting a fresh look by local officials eager to save money and avoid duplication. All of the members of the Harris County Commissioners Court are renewing calls for the county to take over forensic work from the city lab, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said last week that he is interested in pursuing either a merger or further partnership with the county, in contrast to his predecessor.

2016-03-26 | LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATORS SEEK OUT PRIVATE DNA DATABASES
Ancestry.com and competitor 23andme report a total of five requests from law agencies for the genetic material of six individuals in their growing databases of hundreds of thousands. Ancestry.com turned over one person's data for an investigation into the murder and rape of an 18-year-old woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho. 23andme has received four other court orders but persuaded investigators to withdraw the requests.

2016-03-25 | Houston crime lab revises policies after mishandling evidence
Houston's Office of Inspector General recommended Wednesday that the city's forensic science center revise its policy procedures concerning quality control, following an investigation into three separate incidents last year in which analysts mistakenly contaminated evidence.