FBI FORENSICS FIASCO: Update

Once again, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have launched another embarrassing review of thousands of criminal cases to make determinations as to whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve new trials because of flawed FBI Laboratory forensic evidence.

The announcement of this new investigation was made yesterday, Tuesday, July 10th, 2012, by DOJ.

The review comes after The Washington Post reported in April 2012 that Justice Department officials had known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people but had not performed a thorough review of the cases. In addition, prosecutors did not notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled.

The undertaking is the largest post-conviction review ever done by the FBI. It will include cases conducted by all FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985 and may reach earlier if records are available, people familiar with the process said. Such FBI examinations have taken place in federal and local cases across the country, often in violent crimes, such as rape, murder and robbery.

[see, "Flawed Forensics Spur Case Reviews", Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post, Wednesday, July 11, 2012, p. A1]