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In The News

2015-04-09 | FBI's Next Generation Identification is Fully Operational
The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division took biometric identification to the next level when the Next Generation Identification (NGI) System — now the FBI’s largest information technology system — became fully operational. Seven years in the making, this new system expands upon and replaces the 15-year-old Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS).

2015-04-09 | A bite mark matching advocacy group just conducted a study that discredits bite mark evidence
So even as we await the results of the ABFO’s do-over on its own study to assess the validity of this field, not only do those convicted due to bite mark analysis remain in prison, law enforcement groups are still using it to win convictions. It’s almost as if those 24 exonerations never happened.

2015-04-09 | Morpho fingerprint ID tech wins NIST 1-1 verification - See more at: http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/2896/#sthash.Egc84p6j.dpuf
PFT II assessed the competing software under the most rigorous test conditions to date. Phase I of the evaluation compared thumbs and index fingers only. To test the vendors’ matching software with a wider range of samples, Phase II evaluated index fingers, middle fingers, and thumbs. In addition, the tests were performed with three different types of impressions – plain vs. plain, plain vs. rolled, and rolled vs. rolled – in four different sizes.

2015-04-07 | Rapid DNA Technology
There are no shortcuts in criminal investigations, but a new tool is saving time and investigation expenses at law enforcement agencies throughout the country. Rapid DNA instruments—desktop devices that provide sample-to-result analysis of biological evidence in less than two hours—are making a difference in dozens of U.S. jurisdictions by allowing the timely matching of a suspect’s unique DNA profile to crime scene evidence.

2015-04-06 | Better Forensics Aren't Enough To Protect From Wrongful Death Sentences
Hinton’s case and the historical data suggest that the problems that cause wrongful convictions won’t be solved simply by having better forensics available at trial and on appeal. Hinton and many of the others exonerated without reference to DNA weren’t condemned through a lack of exculpatory evidence, but by prosecutors and juries giving too much weight to the evidence available.

2015-04-02 | Scandals Mount for SFPD as Lab Technician Fails DNA Exam
A San Francisco Police Crime Lab technician, already implicated in an alleged DNA misconduct case, not only failed a DNA proficiency exam in August, but was the only test-taker in the state to get the answer wrong, says a San Francisco Chronicle article. Civilian police employees Mignon Dunbar, and her supervisor, Cherisse Boland, were barred from processing evidence after the results of the test, and have been on personal leave since allegations that Dunbar misrepresented DNA evidence in a two-year old child molestation case.

2015-04-01 | Wyoming Crime Lab tech resigns after lying
Wyoming Department of Public Safety Director James Carmody told 24 Hour News 8 Anthony Dilley claimed he had completed online courses he needed for his job, but he hadn’t. “He also during an internal investigation at the Wyoming Police Department indicated that he falsified data logs, saying that he had done certain tasks when he had not, and that he did not follow proper procedures when conducting drug results,” Kent County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker told the court during Jarrett’s sentencing proceedings.

2015-03-29 | Omaha prosecutors' memo delves into crime lab controversies over suspended director, fingerprint evidence
In an unprecedented move, Omaha prosecutors have crafted a memo for defense attorneys that provides new details, and a few old ones, on a recent run of controversies dogging Omaha’s crime labs. The three-page memo — compiled by Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine’s office — exposes a new controversy: a ballistics test that was recently botched by Omaha police in a double murder investigation. The memo sheds new light on allegations against Douglas County Crime Lab Director Tracey Ray, who has been on paid leave since October. And it lays out the details of a fingerprint misidentified by three Omaha police crime lab investigators.

2015-03-25 | State Bar punishes Johnston prosecutor
After a disciplinary hearing March 3, the bar found that Paul Jackson mishandled a 2011 rape case, and because of that, the defendant remained in jail for an additional four and a half months. Specifically, Jackson failed to take notice when rape kit results became available, and he inaccurately told a judge that he had been in contact with the State Crime Lab. The defendant’s DNA did not match the sample in the rape kit.

2015-03-18 | Amid push to clear rape kit backlog, extent of problem unknown in Az
Mass testing of backlogged kits in other parts of the country has yielded promising results, according to the White House press release. It pointed to 11,000 kits found in an abandoned Detroit police storage unit in 2009, about 2,000 of which had been tested as of this January under a pilot project. It said that testing “resulted in approximately 760 DNA matches and led to the identification of 188 serial offenders and 15 convictions.”