FBI's Forensic Test Full of Holes

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

(Washingtonpost.com)  Ernest Roger Peele, a retired FBI agent who testified about bullet matching in 130 cases, stands by his testimony but said that sometimes the nuances of science get "lost in the adversarial nature of the courtroom." He said he would no longer tell jurors that bullets can be linked to specific boxes because of the science academy's findings.

Peele, who said he was frustrated that he was never contacted by the academy, added that his bullet matches were meant to be "a part of a puzzle" and never the only forensic evidence. "Is it possible there are innocent people in jail? Yes. Is it possible that bullet lead was part of that process? Yes."

The Origins of the Science

The FBI's bullet-lead analysis was created more than four decades ago to link suspects to crimes in cases in which bullets had fragmented to the point where traditional firearms tracing - based on gun-barrel groove markings - would not work.

So FBI scientists used chemistry to try to find matches. Their assumption was that bullets made from the same batch of lead would have the same chemical composition. U.S. bullet-makers recycle lead from car batteries and melt it down in huge amounts, and it was believed that each batch would produce bullets sharing the same trace elements.

The FBI first used the technique after Kennedy's assassination, hoping to determine whether various bullet fragments came from the same gun. In July 1964, then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote to the commission investigating the assassination that the bureau's findings were "not considered sufficient" to make any matches.

By the early 1980s, the bureau was the only practitioner of the science and routinely used it to help state and local police link crime-scene bullets to those in a gun or a box owned by a suspect. There are few federal murder statutes, but the FBI routinely helps local law enforcement by providing forensic expertise in homicide cases.

In the mid-1990s, Lundy used the science to help prove that Clinton White House lawyer Vincent W. Foster committed suicide, internal FBI documents show.

In the early days, bullet fragments were subjected to neutron beams that would allow scientists to measure the presence and amounts of at least three chemical elements: antimony, arsenic and copper. If two bullets had similar measurements of those three elements - the FBI allowed for a small margin of error - they were declared a match.

In 1996, the bureau switched to a new method called "inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy," in which scientists identified and measured seven trace elements in the bullets, adding the elements bismuth, cadmium, tin and silver. The goal was to increase the precision of the tests. But at the same time that it was measuring more elements, the FBI doubled the margin of error for declaring matches.

"Not enough suspects were being caught in the new net using seven elements, so they chose to use a bigger net," said Clifford Spiegelman, a statistician at Texas A&M University who reviewed the FBI's statistical methods for the science academy.

The bureau conducted a study in 1991 that called bullet-lead analysis a "useful forensic tool" that produced "accurate" and "reproducible" matches.

The study, however, raised two concerns.

First, it found that bullets packaged 15 months apart - a span that assumed separate batches of lead - had the exact composition, potentially undercutting the theory that each batch was unique.

Second, it found that bullets in a single box often had several different lead compositions. That finding, it cautioned, should have "significant impact on interpretation of results in forensic cases."

Peele, the retired bullet-lead examiner, was the primary author of that study. He said he still felt comfortable having told jurors in the past that bullets from the same box could be expected to match, as long as his remarks were carefully qualified.

In the Hunt case, he testified that his match of the crime-scene bullets to those in the suspects' box was "typical of everything we examined coming from the same box or the next closest possibility would be the same type, same manufacturer, packaged on or about the same day."

Peele said that he always tried to tell jurors that some bullets in the same box might not match. Still, he said it was reasonable for jurors to conclude that matching bullets could have come from the same box. "I don't think it's misleading as long as it's fully explained," he said.

Some of Peele's colleagues went further. FBI examiner John Riley told a Florida jury: "It is my opinion that all of those bullets came from the same box of ammunition." A New Jersey prosecutor suggested that the bullets matched by the FBI were as unique as a "snowflake or fingerprint."

Today, the FBI regards all such testimony as inaccurate. "The science does not and has never supported the testimony that one bullet can be identified as coming from a particular box of bullets," said Adams, the retired FBI lab director.

[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.