FBI's Forensic Test Full of Holes

Hundreds Of Convictions Are In Question Now That FBI Forensic Evidence Has Been Discredited

(Washingtonpost.com)  The past inaction on bullet-lead contrasts with the last time the FBI's science was called into question, in the mid-1990s, when 13 lab employees were accused of shoddy work and of giving overstated testimony involving several disciplines, including explosives as well as hair and fiber analysis. Back then, the Justice Department reviewed hundreds of cases in which FBI experts testified, and it notified prisoners about problems that affected their convictions. The government did so because prosecutors have a legal obligation to turn over evidence that could help defendants prove their innocence.

Current FBI managers said that they originally believed that the public release of the 2004 National Academy of Sciences report and the subsequent ending of the analysis generated enough publicity to give defense attorneys and their clients plenty of opportunities to appeal. The bureau also pointed out that it sent form letters to police agencies and umbrella groups for local prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers.

Even the harshest critics concede that the FBI correctly measured the chemical elements of lead bullets. But the science academy found that the lab used faulty statistical calculations to declare that bullets matched even when the measurements differed slightly. FBI witnesses also overstated the significance of the matches.

The FBI's umbrella letters, however, glossed over those problems and did little to alert prosecutors or defense lawyers that erroneous testimony could have helped convict defendants, one of the recipients said.

"Frankly, the letters that they sent them, you know, were minimizing the significance of the error in the first place," said defense lawyer Barry Scheck, whose nonprofit Innocence Project has helped free more than 200 wrongly convicted people. The letters said that "our science wasn't really inaccurate. Our interpretation was wrong. But the interpretation is everything."

The FBI said last week that the 2005 letters "should have been clearer." Scheck has now been asked to assist the FBI's review.

Since 2005, the nonpartisan Forensic Justice Project, run by former FBI lab whistle-blower Frederic Whitehurst, has tried to force the bureau to release a list of bullet-lead cases under the Freedom of Information Act. The Post joined the request, citing the public value of the information. But the government has stalled, among other things seeking $70,000 to search for the documents.

"By stonewalling and delaying the release, Justice has ensured that wrongfully convicted citizens are deprived of their right to appeal or seek post-conviction relief because the statute of limitations in many states has expired," said David Colapinto, the lawyer for the group.

As part of its review, the FBI will release all bullet-lead case files involving convictions.

The Scope of the Cases

Most of the estimated 2,500 instances in which the FBI performed bullet-lead exams involved homicide cases that were prosecuted at the state and local levels, where FBI examiners often were summoned as expert witnesses for the prosecution.

To compile an independent list, The Post and "60 Minutes" conducted a nationwide review, interviewing dozens of defense lawyers, prosecutors and scientific experts. The effort also included a sweep of electronic court filings conducted by four summer associates at the New York law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.

In many of the cases that raise the most compelling questions, the inmates might have a hard time winning the public's sympathy. Some had criminal backgrounds and most were convicted with at least some additional circumstantial evidence linking them to gruesome crime scenes. But the common thread is that removing the flawed bullet-lead evidence has created reasonable doubt about guilt in the minds of legal experts, the courts and at least one juror.

In North Carolina, Lee Wayne Hunt, 48, remains in prison after being convicted 21 years ago of a double murder. Hunt was an admitted marijuana dealer, but has steadfastly denied involvement in the killings. The FBI testified that its bullet-lead analysis linked fragments from the victims to a box of bullets connected to Hunt's co-defendant. That was the sole forensic evidence against Hunt. State prosecutors recently conceded that the analysis should not be considered "scientifically supported and relied upon."

In addition, the attorney for Hunt's co-defendant, who committed suicide in prison, has since declared that his client carried out the murders alone.
Despite both developments, Hunt has been denied a new trial.

"What they're relying on here is technicalities to keep an innocent man in prison," said Richard Rosen, Hunt's attorney.

Another North Carolina case highlights the impact that FBI bullet-lead testimony had on local jurors. James Donald King faces execution after being convicted of killing his two wives. He admitted to killing his first wife, spent time in prison, was released on parole, remarried and then was convicted of murdering his second wife.

The court is considering whether to grant a new trial.

"If the state had not introduced evidence linking a bullet in King's car to the bullet fragments in the victim, there would have been reasonable doubt in my mind as to King's guilt," juror Michelle Lynn Adamson said in an affidavit supporting his appeal.

Other defendants have had mixed results:

• In Maryland, the Court of Appeals last year reversed the murder conviction of Gemar Clemons and ordered a new trial, concluding that the FBI's bullet-lead conclusions "are not generally accepted within the scientific community and thus are not admissible."
  
• In New Jersey, courts have reversed and reinstated convictions in cases involving bullet lead. The conviction of one defendant, Michael Behn, was reversed, but he recently was re-convicted on other evidence.
  
• Shane Ragland's conviction in the 1994 killing of a University of Kentucky football player was reversed after Kathleen Lundy, an FBI bullet-lead examiner, pleaded guilty to giving false testimony in his case about bullet-lead manufacturing. A few weeks ago, Ragland pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and is now free.

[cmaples82]

This is the daugther of the victims that Lee Wayne Hunt MURDERED . I don''t care what any of you say he is GUILTY and it really sucks that he is gettting all this national attention when the family of the victims can''t even get a return call from the people on 60 minutes . and ythe comment from the people saying should the journalist really be call ing someone a drug dealing if he is speaking about Lee Wayne Hunt he needs to go back and watch the show because he addimited to being a drug dealer and even though he is in prison he probally is still dealing drugs .

[mcvet]

And for those of you that think there is even one FBI analyst at the FBI Lab that purposely tries to put innocent people in jail, you should follow dukakislives to Canada. Come on people - a mistake was made and not on purpose. Next time you want to throw a stone at the FBI Lab just think about whether you would want them to help you if your loved one was missing or killed.


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Posted by BeAnAmerican at 07:57 PM : Nov 18, 2007
+ report abuse

It seem''s you fascist ALWAYS come up with some excuse. PLEASE explain why, when confronted with the story from a DEFENSE Attorney for another man who admitted to the killings, the NAZI judge in N.C. refused to even concider releasing the man but instead turned the Attorney in to the Bar Association.. His CLIENT WAS DEAD!!! You sure know how to bury your head in the sand that''s for sure. I know one thing, if something like this happens based on ONE piece of evidence, someone wasn''t looking for justice... NOPE! That judge ant that jury were looking for a REASON to lock someone up... PERIOD! Sieg Heil Y''all.

[likeablunchs]

'' ...

if a network or camera or art supply or calculator company can send a signal to a tv,

or send a signal to a paid computet operating system company to spruce up the signal before posting to the tv,

why would the network, camera, art supply, or calculator company choose to waste uncountable vaulable time and effort and other resources trying to develop equipment that is compatible with an operating system that does not even spruce up a signal before passing it to a television?

... ''

[anonbene]

Did you know prisons are private companies now? Did you know you can buy stock in prisons? Did you know police lawyers and judges buy stock in prisons? Did you know it is profitable to have as many prisonors in prison as possible and building more prisons is a for profit venture? Did you know that prisons are in the top three fastest growing industries? Did you know most public defenders are worth exactly what you pay them? Zilch. Did you know it is estimated that up to 25% of all inmates are innocent of any crime? It is in the best financial interest of everyone in the courtroom that you be convicted of something? Wake up folks. Always follow the money.

[cdddraftsman]

"9/11 was as much of an inside job as the attack on Pearl Harbor"

Wow ! That man should have his brain exhumed and donated to the bureau of wildlife ! :-( ......tl

[beanamerican]

First of all, dukakislives should move to Canada. Go see what you are missing but don''t come back.
And for those of you that think there is even one FBI analyst at the FBI Lab that purposely tries to put innocent people in jail, you should follow dukakislives to Canada. Come on people - a mistake was made and not on purpose. Next time you want to throw a stone at the FBI Lab just think about whether you would want them to help you if your loved one was missing or killed.

[beanamerican]

First of all, dukakislives should move to Canada. Go see what you are missing but don''t come back.
And for those of you that think there is even one FBI analyst at the FBI Lab that purposely tries to put innocent people in jail, you should follow dukakislives to Canada. Come on people - a mistake was made and not on purpose. Next time you want to throw a stone at the FBI Lab just think about whether you would want them to help you if your loved one was missing or killed.

[beanamerican]

First of all, dukakislives should move to Canada. Go see what you are missing but don''t come back.
And for those of you that think there is even one FBI analyst at the FBI Lab that purposely tries to put innocent people in jail, you should follow dukakislives to Canada. Come on people - a mistake was made and not on purpose. Next time you want to throw a stone at the FBI Lab just think about whether you would want them to help you if your loved one was missing or killed.

[denn034]

Shame on the FBI.

[king77shaw]

9/11 was indeed an inside job!

[Renegade.Rivers]

It''s a sad side note to the American justice system that our justice system has been so tainted over the years. Justice is hard to come by, and good legal representation is even harder to obtain. We gloat and stick our chest out as we brag about how great and fair our justice system is, but the truth be told, its really not that great or fair. In the system that we have, moneys buys justice, justice is no free for the offering. There are those that would have you believe otherwise, but with the number of faulty lab analysis, and all the other anomalies that have been proven to exist in the legal system they tout so highly, how can they continue to take that stand.

We have taken and made criminal elements out of various groups in society that weren''t considered so a hundred years ago. We have seen the creation of laws, and the justification for their existence on so called "moral grounds" that I am sure could never been envisioned by our forefathers.

History has not been kind to justice in America, because justice has not been well served in America. America has found it convenient to throw out justice, when justice got in the way of the undertakings of rich and powerful, whose sole ambitions were to satisfy their lust for the possessions of others at what ever cost necessary, even at the expense of justice.

[glaswolf]

dukakislives at 12:28 PM: Before guns, people used knives and clubs and things were more violent and more dangerous. Guns make noise and usually after one person is shot, the ambiance is alerted, and someone intervenes. If I recall correctly, Richard Speck stabbed 8 nurses one at a time. He tied them up, then walked them one at a time into another room where he stabbed them with one knife. No guns will mean a radical increase in brutal butchery. Ask Speck ... only one nurse survived the knifings.

[prinzowhales]

Only a people accustomed to crawling on its collective power before power would continue to allow a murderous and criminal regime rule over it...

SEE:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2035108967536002048&hl=en

LOOSE CHANGE shows how elements of the Washington Regime murdered 3,000 Americans...Infowars.com has an archive of the crimes of this Regime against the American people...Why would anyone be surpirsed that the leadership of the Federal Bureau of Incompetence continues its abysmal work...it was only yesterday that the whistle was blown on the FBI''s crime lab hijinks...the FBI leadership sabotaged the investigations of its fine street agents who wanted to go after the terrorist suspects at the flight school...The White House itself threatened agents with arrest if they continued their bin Laden investigations PRIOR TO 9-11.

If America continues to accept the kind of Demopublican criminal leadership that covers up for criminals--as evidenced by the arse-licking corrupt swine on the 9-11 Commission--then you will have a police state that is fully in the service of the criminals.

[creeper00]

Just the latest scandal du jour traceable to the crooks in the "administration".

I can''t whip up any indignation over this one...nor any of the other daily tales of malfeasance. My outrage meter pegged years ago.

[b0ludo]

Our DAs will do anything to get a conviction and that is the way we like it. So what if a small percentage of convictions were won via giving co-defendants a deal that could save them, even if they lied? That is the only way to keep this human junk off the streets!! Better yet, shoot them when you catch them. It will help the prison overcrowding. Catch a thug raping a child? Give him some double-barreled justice ipso facto... You''ll see how our crime rates start to decline when we start hanging perps in public places.

[mygramma]

A law enforcement agency like the FBI that prides itself on world class excellence should also abide by world class honesty and integrity. It hasn''t.

[myidoncbs]

"2,500 cases over three decades" with tainted evidence. How many of the defendants have been put to death? Fortunately, since they usually sit on death row for 10 to 15 years, only about 1/2 of those sentenced to death have been killed so far. BUT THAT''S NO EXCUSE! The whole "criminal justice" system is UNJUST, rotten to the core, corrupt, and evil.

And the really crazy thing is: look at the comments on that story about a texas ****** who decided he "had to" act as judge, jury, and executioner as he left his house with a shotgun, went next door, and murdered two petty thieves who were taking junk from his neighbor. Lots of a-holes are saying he was justified! How stu/pid can they be? If every paranoid lunatic with a gun can just decide, on their own, who is guilty and who deserves to die (death for petty theft?) and immediately sentence the "guilty" to death and carry out the sentence on the spot, guess what? We''ll have total chaos, anarchy, and life will not be worth shiiiiit for anybody!

What the h3ll has this country become under the "leadership" of the freat "Decider"?

[mutantdog]

"The cases include a North Carolina drug dealer who has developed significant new evidence to bolster his claim of innocence and a Maryland man who was recently granted a new murder trial."

Should the journalist here really be calling someone a "drug dealer" when they very well might be innocent? Shouldn''t this say something like, "...a North Carolina man accused of drug dealing..."?

[crater7]

CAN YOU IMAGINE JOHNNY SUTTON, NOTIFING THE DEFENDENTS ATTORNEYS OF THE POSSIBILITY THAT THEIR CLIENTS COULD BE INNOCENT?

ARROGANT AND POWER HUNGRY PROSECUTERS WILL NEVER ADMIT MISTAKES. CHANCES ARE THAT 99% OF THE CONVICTED ARE GUILTY, BUT, THERE COULD BE THAT 1%, THAT ARE INNOCENT.

OH WELL! TO BAD.............

[farmerbb]

..."notification to prosecutors" ....????? Ahh, gee, maybe the defendants and their lawyers should be the prime targets for any such notifications. We have all seen far too many cases where evidence surfaces AFTER a trial, proving the defendant innocent, yet the prosecutor still insists he/she is guilty. I dunno about the rest of you, but I have zero faith that each and every prosecutor notified of this will ensure that those convicted & their lawyers are also told.